The background is 1646, the third year of Shunzhi in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, in Yangzhou Prefecture, an important water transport town in the south of the Yangtze River. The protagonist Shen Yan is a "general officer" under the Water Transport Department of Yangzhou Prefecture. He has no rank and rank, and his family is poor but he keeps a certain bottom line. Later, he was assigned by the secretary of the Water Transport Department to deliver three-day rations and warm clothing to three out-of-town grain officials who were stranded at the water transport terminal, within a one-day deadline. Although the task is small, it requires Shen Yan to travel to the water transport terminals, slum alleys, Qing army sentries and other places inside and outside Yangzhou City. Throughout the process, from Shen Yan's perspective, he records the living conditions and joys and sorrows of people from different walks of life in the apocalypse, showing the various states of all living beings.
