There was once a poor young peasant who worked as a farmer. His lands were barren and did not yield much, and he was never able to earn enough money to improve his living. In spite of this, he was a polite and honest person, and was well liked by those who knew him. The most valuable thing he had was an ox which he used to pull the plough to till the fields.

One day, the peasant's ox told the peasant that it was in fact the Ox Star which had been sent down to earth as a slave to atone for mistakes it had made while it was in heaven. The Ox Star however, was grateful for the peasant's kindness and care during the period, and it had decided to repay him by helping him find a wife.

The Ox Star led the peasant to the side of a lake, where he bid the man hide in the undergrowth. It told him that this was the pool in which the heavenly maidens bathed in. The man did as he was told, and true enough, a group of beautiful girls came to the lake. They took off their clothes and left them at the side of the lake whilst they stepped into the lake to bathe.

The man quickly hid one of the girl's clothes in the undergrowth, before appearing before the bathing maidens. The maidens panicked and they grabbed their clothes and flew away, all except one, who was unable to find her clothes. The man approached her, and after a while, the maiden realized the peasant meant no harm, and on listening to his request for her hand in marriage, she agreed to marry him.

The maiden was in fact the granddaughter of heaven. She was the goddess of weaving and with her proficiency in the art, they made much money and the peasant was finally able to lift himself out of poverty. They lived in marital bliss and had two children, a girl and a boy. They managed to remain unnoticed by heaven for many years, but were finally discovered.

The gods were appalled with the fact that the weaving maid had stayed on earth for a man, and thus sent heavenly guards to bring her back to heaven. The peasant saw the guards come and whisk his wife off to heaven, and there was nothing he could do. His ox had been watching all this while, and it told the peasant that it was dying soon. When it was dead, the peasant should skin it and use its skin to fly into the heavens and meet his wife.

The man did as he was told, and he carried their two children and he set off into the sky. He soon found his wife in the heavens, but just as they were about to meet each other, the Queen Mother of the West stopped them by putting a river between them, known as the milky way. The two lovers were distraught, unable to meet each other though able to see each other.

Just as the situation seemed desperate, their daughter innocently told her father to use the ladle he had used to carry the basket, to scoop the water out of the river so he could cross. The heavens were touched by this act, and so they decided that the family should be allowed to be reunited once a year. On the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, magpies from all over fly to form a bridge over the raging river, so the two lovers can meet.

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