After transmigrating back to 1982, Chen Jianguo uses a box of electronic watches to turn the tide of the times.
From setting up a stall at the train station to entering the underground trade, he uses his forward-looking knowledge to resell scarce goods, only to face crackdowns for "speculation and profiteering" and underhanded attacks from rivals.
Walking a knife's edge in the resale trade, he resolutely shifts to manufacturing: he opens an electronics factory and makes domestic calculators, bringing the spark of modern technology back to an era of scarcity.
This is a collision between private entrepreneurs and the state-owned system, a struggle between underworld tactics and the benefits of reform, and the epic tale of a transmigrator using business acumen to knock on the door of industry.
Amid the interplay of legal gray areas and fervent emotion, he must do more than make money: he must change the course of a generation's technological development.