In the foggy city of Haikou in the north, the railway tracks have just entered, but the sails have not yet been exhausted. The bulletin board at the street corner roared with the printing press, shouting the rapid pace of the times. Gu Wensheng, a young typewriter who walked into the printing shop as a loader from the dock, typed wedding books, obituaries, and notices day after day, and secretly typed flyers handed over by students; Cheng Liluo, a female teacher who came out of a missionary school, wore a dark cheongsam and taught geometry and new etiquette, and also mended the sleeves of children from poor families after class. Feng Xiaolin, the new army general in charge of Wucheng, likes to wear white gloves. When his military boots step on the bluestone, they sound like two empty shells. Ninth Sister, the woman who runs the Qing Guo Ren restaurant in the south alley of the old city, is entangled with people in the city, and her smile is hidden. There are also students, patrolmen, railway station masters, tofu sellers, water carriers, and troupe students - they collide, get lost, recognize each other, and get separated in the heavy fog. Slogans of change, gunshots, songs, and whistles intertwined, creating a dark and sunny city. Floods have come, defeats have come, bandits have come, and flames have come. The story is about how they raised their heads under the bulletin board and whispered beside the printing press, how they kept a little bit of dignity and selfishness in the wind, how they pulled each other in the face of uncertainty, made promises, betrayed, rescued each other, and held grudges. The iron of the times rolls by, and whoever leaves a mark is just a puff of smoke.
