In Binjiang, a second-tier city, construction is underway on Jiangwan Huating, the largest urban renewal project in the city center. The project is being led by Binjiang Construction, a major local state-owned enterprise. Inside the project, authority and responsibility are a mess, and interests are tangled together. Cutting corners, taking kickbacks, and shifting blame have become unwritten rules of the industry. The protagonist, a technical manager on the project, blocks someone else's path to profit and is framed by a group of conspirators. He is saddled with the blame for a "quality accident" and blacklisted by the industry. Starting from scratch, he fights back using a mix of legitimate and gray-area methods.
