In the past 40 years Foshan City was frontier of government reform. The story describes the different experiences, encounters and life choices of the people who live in Foshan from beginning of this time. The character and temperament of the Foshan people are “dare to be first, chongwen is pragmatic, and economically harmonious”.
When Tong Yueyue, a power engineer, and her designer husband Ma Jiancheng are driving home, they accidentally hit a woman in the street, severely injuring her. Feeling guilty, the couple returns to the scene and gets the woman to the hospital. Two pedestrians witness only their return, and the couple is heralded as the victim’s saviors. After Tong finds a money order in the victim’s belongings which contains her address she contrives an excuse to go to Dongshan Village where she learns about the woman and her challenging life. When Gu Guihua, the victim, recovers but has amnesia, she is taken into Tong’s home. Eventually Tong’s guilt proves to be too much, and she begins to set things right.
The lives of a Beijing family throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as they experience the impact of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
