When depression hangs over her like a dark cloud, a talking sunflower becomes her last lifeline.
At 26, Lin Yang is on the verge of collapse, worn down by the pressures of a major internet company and the suffocating weight of her family. After a failed suicide attempt, a mysterious sunflower on a rooftop stops her. A gentle, prerecorded male voice comes from its flower head, like a glimmer of light in the darkness, catching her as she falls.
The sunflower is the work of Gu Xiang, a 28-year-old genius in plant acoustics. Through technology, he hopes to make plants an “interface” for emotions and use natural sound waves to help treat depression. The two meet in Chengdu, where Lin Yang becomes a participant in the “Sunshine Backup Project.” She bonds with a sunflower of her own, building an emotional connection through sound waves.
But when the plants begin to wither for no apparent reason, the company is hit by corporate espionage, and a funding crisis erupts, Lin Yang’s depression returns. She leaves a suicide note and disappears. In the depths of despair, Gu Xiang uses voice data Lin Yang recorded early on to create a “Backup Sunshine” USB drive, then searches for her through a storm and finds her on the brink of hopelessness.
“Technology isn’t a god, but I can be your backup.”
As they save each other, their deeper ties gradually come to light: Gu Xiang’s parents died in an accident during their early research into plant sound waves; the truth behind Lin Yang’s father leaving home; and the fierce struggles between capital and ethics unfolding behind it all. Amid questions of technology, ethics, and self-redemption, they decide to open-source the technology and face the controversy head-on, meeting malice with sincerity and ultimately protecting the true essence of love and life.
