The story begins in 1934 in Yuanling County, western Hunan. Seventeen-year-old Shen Mobai and Su Furong became friends at the "Minglun School" because of a book of "The Book of Songs". He is the son of a local tea merchant, gentle and elegant; she is the daughter of a professor from Peking who had fled to Peking, and is well-educated and sensible. The two made a vow under the hibiscus tree by the Yuanjiang River, but they did not know that a war was about to sweep across the land of China, throwing them into completely different destinies. From the campus days when they discussed poetry together, to the war-torn front line of the Anti-Japanese War; from the test of life and death in the jungles of northern Myanmar, to the distant view of each other on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, their love has suffered in the torrent of history. In the end, they failed to meet again and passed away with regret. However, the wheels of history have not stopped. In 1987, cross-strait relatives were allowed to visit each other. Through the diaries left by them, the descendants of the two elderly people embarked on a journey to find their roots across time and space, completing a belated reunion and comfort.
