In Tong'an, Xiamen, where the sea breeze whispers tenderly, auto repair shop owner Chen Wenlong is left among the ruins of a three-year long-distance relationship. His romance with Guo Ziqi, a livestreamer from Northeast China, has ultimately fallen apart under the distance and unfamiliarity between them, separated by a screen. Three years together have come to nothing. Consumed by heartbreak, he drives alone to Rainbow Beach and drinks to drown his sorrows beside the sea, where the tides ebb and flow. He gets so drunk that he loses consciousness.
Fate quietly brings them together when Liu Mianmian, a girl from Quanzhou, happens to pass by and takes the down-and-out man back to her rented room. Liu Mianmian is 165 centimeters tall and favors stockings and heels between 8 and 10 centimeters high. She works promoting drinks at a KTV in Tong'an. Behind the glamorous appearance of her job lie hardships and resilience that few know about. Two people far from home, each carrying their own worries, go from strangers to familiar companions in the lively little city of Tong'an. They grow to understand and cherish one another, then fall deeply in love. Their ordinary days are filled with the unique warmth of Egret Island.
They return to their hometowns together to meet their parents. What they thought would be the start of a happy life meets one obstacle after another because of Liu Mianmian's job. Social prejudice and her family's lack of understanding leave them struggling to breathe. With no other choice, Liu Mianmian quietly leaves. On the night before their farewell, she shares a final drink with Chen Wenlong in her rented room and entrusts him with everything most precious to her. Then she leaves a letter and vanishes without a trace.
When Chen Wenlong wakes, his beloved is nowhere to be found, and his world collapses. He can no longer bring himself to run the auto repair shop, so he leaves it in the hands of a mechanic and begins a frantic year-long search. He scours every corner of Xiamen, but finds no trace of her. Just as he is nearing despair, he comes to Jimei School Village to deal with a car owner's vehicle problem
