Love and Scandal in the Provincial Capital

A Lijing City elementary school student takes credit for an insect collection that was not his.

In the autumn of 1949, during the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, General Jiang, commander of the Kuomintang garrison in Xinjiang, saw that the situation was lost. He secretly ordered his deputy, Feng Ziqiao, to escort his wife Gina and a shipment of treasures abroad. Gina sought out a White Russian officer named Vasily and conspired with him to seize the treasures for themselves. Feng Ziqiao hired a local named Rexiti as a guide, planning to disguise the group as a trading caravan heading abroad.

The Deputy Director of the Qinshan County Bureau of Commerce makes poor business decisions and opposes his daughter's relationship with a man who points out the Deputy Director's errors.

The construction of Langwan port in 1974 is hampered by followers of the Gang of Four.

Yang, the director of a farm machinery factory, is a manager who cares only about production targets and pays little attention to the everyday lives of his workers. His wife, Auntie Yang, heads the factory's family services group, while their beloved daughter, Yang Ping, has grown up in such comfort that she looks down on household chores. Yang Ping's boyfriend, Chen Fang, is an intelligent and capable young worker. Yet the heavy burden of domestic work leaves him exhausted, affecting both his job and his creative pursuits. The strain also leads to frequent quarrels with Yang Ping, putting their relationship in jeopardy.

Mozhuor, a wandering drifter who earns a living waiting tables in a small restaurant, unexpectedly reunites with Chunliu, a fellow villager he has not seen for years. Chunliu has prospered since leaving home, building a successful fish-farming business with his wife and younger sister, Xinghua. Through years of hard work, the family has become one of the region's most prosperous rural households. Seeing Mozhuor's miserable circumstances, Chunliu urges him to return to his hometown at Swan Lake and resume the traditional trades he once knew so well—raising fish and training cormorants for fishing. Homesick after years of wandering, Mozhuor decides to take his advice and return. With neither a house nor any land to call his own, Mozhuor has no choice but to live temporarily aboard Xinghua's small boat. Because he once saved Xinghua's life, Chunliu's family welcomes him warmly and does everything they can to help him rebuild his life.