In the winter of 1997, Song Changjiang, the contractor of Dongjiang Terminal, sailed a boat alone to divert the inspection team to protect his brothers, and was imprisoned for three years. Before leaving, he entrusted the dock to his brother Song Yuanjiang: "Don't touch the things under the water."
Three years later, Yang Jiang was released from prison and found that the dock had changed beyond recognition - his younger brother Song Yuanjiang conspired with Wenzhou businessman Boss Huang to sell the dock to real estate developers to build river-view mansions. What makes Yangjiang even more distressed is that Yuanjiang secretly uses the mezzanine of containers to smuggle car parts, turning the dock that the brothers paid for with their lives into a channel for laundering black money.
The only thing that hasn't changed is his adopted brother Song Xiaohe. This orphan who Yangjiang rescued from human traffickers now works at the dock carrying cement and sacks, saving money day after day to buy prosthetics for his elder brother (Yangjiang was injured in prison and had two fingers amputated). He doesn't understand the changes of the times or the rules of the market. He only knows that "the dock must be there before the big brother comes back."
