In the late 1970s, a family surnamed Zhou lived in the "Guangzi Pian" area of a provincial capital city in the north. His father Zhou Zhigang participated in the "Third Line" construction in the southwest. His eldest son Zhou Bingyi responded to the country's call and became one of the first batch of educated youth to go to the countryside. His eldest daughter Zhou Rong followed her poet husband to the countryside of Guizhou. Only his younger brother Zhou Bingkun and his mother were left to depend on each other. Over the past fifty years, the fate of the Zhou family has been intertwined with the changes of the times. After graduating from university, Zhou Bingyi entered politics and experienced the ups and downs of his career in the drastic reforms; Zhou Rong stayed at the school to teach after obtaining a doctorate, but her love life was bumpy and she lived in France for twelve years. Zhou Bingkun and the beautiful and unfortunate woman Zheng Juan supported each other. Through their own efforts, they grew from a worker to a literary and artistic worker. They experienced the pain of being laid off and the challenge of "going to sea". In ordinary years, they supported their neighbors and relatives to move forward together. While fulfilling their respective life missions, the family also wrote an epic of the lives of contemporary Chinese people.