A Portrait of Women in Xi'an

Chen Shu, Li Pei, Feng Ruolan, and Yang Ruoxi are four women striving to make their way in Xi'an. It is less that fate has swept them along than that their own desires have driven them to choose different paths in life. After experiencing glamour, hardship, despair, and trials of human nature, they face the rise and fall of their industries, social change, and family upheavals, all while searching for a way forward as women. They overcome adversity and are reborn.

Chen Shu finds her footing through the trials and adjustments of marriage. After divorcing, Feng Ruolan raises two children on her own, devotes herself to the industry she loves, and gains confidence. To protect her senior position, Li Pei signs a contract with her company delaying childbirth and is forced into a childfree life. She claims to be a committed advocate of childlessness, and her marriage nearly falls apart, but when her husband falls ill, she has no choice but to shoulder the family's responsibilities. Yang Ruoxi, who has never married, chose to pursue her own worth when she was young. As she grows older, her standards for a potential partner become ever more exacting. Unable to find someone suitable, she is left with no choice but to remain single.

Whether it is Chen Shu, raising two children within her marriage; Li Pei, who chose to marry but not have children; Feng Ruolan, a divorced single mother; or Yang Ruoxi, who rejects marriage, each faces her own struggles in life and has suffered discrimination because of her circumstances.

They are ordinary people among the countless lives around us. They once struggled to establish themselves in a big city and build careers of their own, and they all work hard to live. They have lost their way beneath the neon lights of the metropolis, but learned to find balance amid material wealth, love, marriage, and desire. This is the story of Xi'an women striving to get ahead, the story of ordinary people striving to get ahead, and the story of industries rising and falling.