Chen Shu, Li Pei, Feng Ruolan, Yang Ruoxi, and one other woman have all struggled to make a life for themselves in Xi'an. Rather than being swept along by fate, they have been driven by the desires in their hearts, choosing different paths in life. After facing glamour, hardship, despair, and tests of human nature, they navigate the rise and fall of industries, changes in society, and family upheavals, seeking a way for women to survive and finding their way out of hardship to be reborn.
Chen Shu finds balance through the trials and adjustments of marriage. After divorcing and becoming a mother of two, Feng Ruolan builds expertise in 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 to become childfree, though she publicly claims to be a believer in childfree living. Her marriage nearly falls apart, but when her husband falls ill, she has no choice but to shoulder the responsibilities of the family. Yang Ruoxi, who has never married, chose to pursue her own worth when she was young. As she grows older, her standards for a marriage partner become ever more exacting. Unable to find the right person, she is left with no choice but to remain single.
Whether it is Chen Shu, raising two children in her marriage; Li Pei, who chose marriage without children; Feng Ruolan, a divorced single mother; or Yang Ruoxi, who believes in staying unmarried, each faces her own struggles in life and has suffered discrimination because of her identity.
They are ordinary people among the multitudes. They once struggled to establish themselves in a big city and build careers of their own. They have all fought to keep living, lost their way beneath the neon lights of the metropolis, and learned to find balance amid material desires, love, marriage, and longing. This is the story of Xi'an women striving to make their way, the story of ordinary people striving to make their way, and the story of industries rising and falling.
