The Monkey Kid is the story of a nine year-old girl's daily life in Beijing, 1970, during the mid-stage of the Cultural Revolution. Her parents, deemed "intellectuals" by the state, have been sent for "Re-education" in the countryside to "Learn from the Peasants." The child is left to learn life on her own. She parachutes from the top of clothes cupboards, she shows up late for school, she tumbles down mountains of gravel, she balances on balconies five stories high....