Lin Jiali (Sylvia Chang) grew up in a family of doctors in a traditional town in southern Taiwan. She and her brother Lin Jiasen (Ming-Hung Kao) received elite education since childhood and graduated from prestigious universities. However, Jiali was unwilling to be forced to give up her lover Tan Weiqing (Hu Yinmeng) like her brother and accept the marriage arranged by her father. She resolutely left home and went north to marry and settle down with her lover Cheng Dewei (Mao Xuewei) in Taipei, a rapidly modernizing city. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, when Taiwan's economy took off, business competition was fierce, and Dewei gradually got involved in the world of money competition, socializing, drinking and sex, and eventually lost himself. Jiali, who felt increasingly lonely and empty, received a phone call one day telling her that Dewei had drowned at the beach. She rushed to the beach and faced the body of a man she didn't know whether it was her husband. Many years later, Jiali met Tan Weiqing who had returned from abroad to perform, and the two recalled the past in a cafe.