In 1999, the bankruptcy and liquidation of Dongfeng Machinery Plant rang its death knell in Liaoshen, a major industrial hub in Northeast China. In the toolbox left behind by his father, veteran machinist Chang Shoushan discovers that the Precision Machining Atlas for Special Bearings, a document tied to a national-level military project, has vanished. At the same time, his daughter is struck by a rare, serious illness, and she urgently needs 800,000 yuan for surgery overseas. Shen Qingnian, Chang’s childhood friend and now a private business owner, shows up with a million yuan in cash, offering to pay for her treatment in exchange for the atlas’s core techniques.
Desperate to save his daughter, Chang Shoushan is trapped between preserving his craft and saving her life. His old coworkers have all gone their separate ways, but Wang Pangzi and Li Jianguo remain by his side. An elderly engineer, Uncle Zhou, who never leaves his home, is hiding a clue. And the “rebellious” design his daughter creates with 3D modeling turns out to contain key parameters missing from the atlas. Clues intertwine amid the dust of a changing era: from an iron box beneath an abandoned quenching furnace to a two-person code for a bank safe deposit box, from a hidden embroidered pattern in a swaddling cloth to the mystery surrounding his father’s death.
Beneath the partnership lies a current of betrayal; beneath family ties lurks a mystery of his origins. Traditional craftsmanship faces the twin pressures of environmental regulations and modern technology. When a national military agency offers him an opportunity, when Shen Qingnian turns out to be his half-brother, and when foreign interests and a conspiracy of capital come to light, Chang Shoushan must finally kindle an undying fire of steel, preserving the roots and spirit of the old craft as he balances personal hardship against duty to his country, and tradition against innovation.
Good-looking, good-looking, good-looking