Set in a county town in northern Anhui, this story follows three young men of the 1980s: Zheng Ziqiang, born on the edge between city and countryside; Xu Zhiyuan, from the county town; and Liu Gen, from a village. From the early days of reform and opening up to the convening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, they spend thirty years striving for a happier life.
In the early 1980s, encouraged by the national policy of "broadening employment opportunities," Zheng Ziqiang moves his whole family into the city to sell breakfast. The policy of "recruiting talent without regard to convention" gives him a chance to turn his life around. He becomes one of the first generation of insurance agents and witnesses the industry's heyday.
Liu Gen is a portrait of the fraud business. As mobile phones enter households across the country, he makes a fortune quickly through telecom scams. Then, a special campaign to crack down on crimes involving scams via text messages and the internet forces him to switch to investment fraud, and he eventually gets caught.
As one of the first generation of art students, Xu Zhiyuan represents the idea that knowledge can change one's destiny. At his most uncertain, the call to realize the "Chinese Dream" lights his way forward. It helps him break free from a narrow outlook focused on the petty concerns of his own household and the education of his own children. With a broader vision, he brings the grand blueprint of the "Chinese Dream" together with the profound principle that "a strong youth makes a strong nation," and resolves to devote his life to running a school and educating the next generation!
Over the course of thirty years, they ride the wave of reform together and weather the storms of their times!
