In the late 1970s, Xu Lingjun (Zhu Shimao), an elementary school teacher who had been a horse herder for half his life in the Chi Lechuan Ranch in the northwest, traveled all the way to the Beijing Hotel and met his father, Xu Jingyou (Liu Qiong), an overseas Chinese entrepreneur in the United States, whom he had not seen for 30 years. At that time, Xu Jingyou, who pursued personal freedom, could not stand the wrong marriage with his wife, and left his wife and children to go to the United States. This time, he returned with the intention of taking Xu Lingjun back to the United States to inherit his business. During the conversation, Xu Lingjun did not think that integrating himself into the collective and always putting national interests first was a manifestation of outdated thinking, and he did not envy his father's comfortable life. Looking back on the path he has taken for decades, although he had the tragic experience of being an abandoned child in his childhood and being labeled a rightist and sent to the ranch in his youth, he also felt the warmth of the world from the simple and kind villagers in the pastoral area several times. After marrying Li Xiuzhi (Cong Shan), a poor girl from Sichuan during the difficult years, Xu Lingjun tasted the bitterness and sweetness of sweetness after bitterness. He believed that after the country had finally overcome the great hurdle of the "Cultural Revolution", individuals should stay with their relatives and friends and follow it towards a new life.