In the early 1970s, Lu Yanshi (played by Chen Daoming), a labor reform prisoner who had been isolated from his family for many years, escaped and returned home during a farm relocation. This put great pressure on his daughter Dandan (played by Zhang Huiwen), who had a dream of ballet. She prevented her mother Feng Wanyu (played by Gong Li) from meeting her father. Therefore, the couple was close yet far away. After the Cultural Revolution, Lu Yanshi finally rehabilitated and returned home, but he found that his daughter had already given up her dream of ballet and became a factory worker, and his beloved wife no longer recognized him because of illness. The deep feelings and changes in life forced Lu Yanshi to make the most absurd but most reasonable life choice for him... This film is the first work of director Zhang Yimou after joining LeTV Pictures, and was praised by screenwriter Zou Jingzhi as a painstaking work.