Wang Zhixia

This family tale spans three generations of Chinese trying to understand and come to terms with life's changes. Middlesome relatives stir up a storm. The old and the young find themselves and their values developing and evolving, and new relationships come and go. The eldest family member, Guan, the son of a royal physician of the former Qing Dynasty, has also become a great physician who is able to predict the exact time of a patient's death. His ex-daughter-in-law, Yu, trained by him to be a physician, still stays with the family as his assistant. Her ex-husband, Jin, comes back from the USA with his new girlfriend, Jenny, a beautiful American who is doing a research on the death of Guangxu, the second last Emperor of Qing Dynasty who is Guan's father's patient. Jenny speaks fluent Mandarin, but she has a long way to go before understanding and getting accustomed to the Chinese tradition and mindset. On the other hand, Yu falls in love with her old friend who is a married man.

After a fierce battle in the plains of Gansu, two injured survivors, a young trumpeter and a girl of the Woman Pioneers, wander in search of their comrades. They are eventually joined by an Yugur girl who has lost her family.

Xiao Cao is a young orphan living with her cruel aunt and uncle. She has a sisterly bond with her neighbour, Qing Qing, who is being forced into a marriage with a much older man by her older brother. Desperate to escape their unfortunate circumstances, the two girls manage to run away together on the day of Qing Qing's wedding. During their escape they coincidentally meet He Shiwei, a young university student who is also running away from his family due to an arranged marriage. After a few initial misunderstandings the three decide to travel together. However, things become complicated when they encounter the Fu family, and the family matriarch mistakes He Shiwei for her son, Fu Yuankai, who died 10 years ago.