Before the Migratory Birds Return

Zhang Pei, an elite at one of Beijing’s top insurance companies, receives an order to parachute into the Chengdu branch. It looks like a career leap, but conceals a power struggle at headquarters. Standing on Chunxi Road with her suitcase, she has no idea that the drama about to unfold in this city will be far more intense than any workplace battle.

Three days before her wedding, Gou Dandan catches her fiancé tangled up with the bridesmaid. The two lines on her pregnancy test become the sharpest possible mockery. Pregnant and fleeing back to Chengdu, she can only maintain appearances when her parents press her with questions by lying that she’s been sent away for a project. She spends her days shuttling between her rented apartment and the maternity clinic, like a wary snail hiding her shattered life inside its shell.

When the two friends meet again, Zhang Pei decides to help Gou Dandan fight for custody, while hiding her longing for her lover in Beijing beneath late-night piles of reports. They find comfort in each other amid the warmth and bustle of Chengdu, and join forces to fight back against the undercurrents of office politics. Gou Dandan uses her keen instincts during pregnancy to uncover a client’s insurance fraud, while Zhang Pei uses decisive measures to help her reclaim the home she owned before marriage.

When Gou Dandan’s child is born and Zhang Pei receives a termination letter from Beijing, they laugh through their tears outside the maternity ward at West China Hospital. The city embraces them in their most vulnerable moments and witnesses how the two women turn life’s thorns into garlands that light the way for each other.