背靠背，脸对脸

In 1978, Chen Wa'er, Wu Xikai and their other childhood friends all entered the gaokao exam rooms. Chen Wa'er and Hu Meihua failed to make the cut while Li Qiang is admitted to an accounting school. As their paths diverge, life widens the gap between the friends. Li Qiang finds a pot of gold as he enters the financial markets and eventually marries Chen Wa'er. His ego gets the best of him and he abandons his wife and son. Wa'er is unfazed by the repeated blows in her life and becomes the founder of a well-known enterprise. Hu Meihua who left for the United States returns as a banker. Looking back, everyone first assembled at the same starting line but when shots were fired, each began to run the marathon towards their respective goals.

Wang Shuangli is Deputy Director of the local Cultural Centre, and hopes to be appointed Director. However Old Ma is brought in from the country and installed as Director. This starts a long train of events with Wang's cronies using the bureaucracy to try to oust the new director.

Writer Gao moves into a new apartment neighboring rude Zhang and his wife. The Zhangs have already forced four neighbor families to leave for different disputes. Now they are clashing with cadre Liu because of a dog issue.

A mining engineer acting as a technical translator is suspected of industrial espionage after sending an innocent telegram that is intercepted by a militant snoop. Placed under investigation and reassigned to a less sensitive department, but never informed of the reason for his demotion, he petitions to get his job back, sparking an increasingly obtuse series of Party meetings.

Journalist Gou Yujia (played by Niu Zhenhua), laid-off female worker Cheng Fen (played by Ding Jiali), individual business owner Lv Dou (played by Wang Jinsong), and wealthy man Lao Cha (played by Ju Hao) are members of Class 1025 at the driving school, practicing under the guidance of Coach Hou, a retired soldier. As time passes, they gradually understand each other's habits. This period of time at the driving school is filled with twists and turns, but all challenges are overcome, and the covert and overt struggles among the five end with the smooth passage of the exams. The experiences at the driving school bring out the joys and sorrows of these five individuals, and besides learning the rules of driving, it seems they have also learned the rules of survival.

In the final days of the Chinese Civil War, Communist agents Wu Shi and Zhu Feng go undercover in Taiwan to gather vital military intelligence. Sacrificing their personal lives for their mission, they risk everything to aid the liberation of key islands until a betrayal jeopardizes their lives.

In response to the death of her husband and young son, peasant Zhang Meili founds a school in the dry desert landscape of northwest China. When cultured and chipper Xia Yu arrives from Beijing to help her out, the two women bond and learn from each other's character how to best serve the children. Various subplots include the arrival of Xia's husband, who tries in vain to persuade her to return to the city, Xia's quick abortion, and the comically clandestine relationship between Zhang and a local projectionist.

On an old barge moored close to a small village inhabited by old people and children, live young Wang Wang and his grandfather. The latter is immensely fond of the local doctor, Ms. Bei, who keeps prompting him to buy her a ring as proof of his good intentions. Wang Wang attends the local school, but, in the absence of maternal authority, with great reluctance. Then, one night, a young pregnant woman is discovered hiding on the boat, ready to give birth. With the arrival of her little baby girl, the young mother, already used to her river accommodations, opts to stay with them. Life on the barge is no longer the same. Wang Wang feels the stirring of adolescence and an Oedipal attraction to the young woman; the grandfather is diagnosed with dementia and and is warned that its first signs could soon manifest themselves; and the new young mother keeps a bag whose contents will later reveal a dark secret. Three people at a crossroads in their lives.

In 1990s China, a dock worker's murder sparks a major manhunt for a crime boss known as the Wise One. Detective Yan Gao leads the covert operation, enlisting port guard Ye for nighttime surveillance. As Ye juggles secrecy, a strained romance, and rising tensions, the lines between duty and personal life begin to blur.

A commercial airliner on a routine flight between Taipei and Seoul is hijacked and taken to mainland China by the Taiwan Revolutionary Army Front. Chinese authorities cannot seize the plane because of the presence of an important business figure on board, but agree to cooperate with Taiwanese authorities to defuse the tense situation.