During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.

Li Xiaolu, 16, meets the bookish student of the class, Wang Xiaobing. They become best friends. During their short period of friendship, they read Sanmao, and discover the most beautiful places in Baocheng - the orchard and the riverbank. However, over time they become less close. Serious differences lead to their separation. In the summer holidays after the college entrance exams are over, Xiaobing comes to see Xiaolu for the last time. As memorable as their first encounter, the friends who have not met for two years reconcile on this day.

Tangshan, 1976. Two seven-year-old twins are buried under the rubble of the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. The rescue team explains to their mother that freeing either child will almost certainly result in the death of the other. Forced to make the most difficult decision of her life, she finally chooses to save her son. Though left behind as dead, the little girl miraculously survives, unbeknownst to her brother and mother.

A father who lost his son realizes his past mistakes and tries to talk to his son and let him rest in peace.

The film describes the magnificent life story of Fan Jinshi, the "Daughter of Dunhuang" and winner of the national honorary title, who sticks to the desert and protects the world's treasure Mogao Grottoes. Taking root in Dunhuang for more than 50 years, Fan Jinshi (played by Chen Jin) and her colleagues from the Dunhuang Academy have been fighting alone against the wind and sand in the northwest to rescue and protect every cultural relic in the Mogao Grottoes; "Mogao must never be allowed to The grottoes have disappeared in our generation!" As time entered the millennium, facing the mighty wave of marketization and tourists from all directions, Fan Jinshi suddenly discovered that the biggest threat to the national treasures in the Mogao Grottoes had never been It's not just the natural environment, but the unpredictable human heart... After reaching her sixtieth year, she must get out of the "hole" where she has worked hard all her life...

Lin Gensheng comes to work in the desert.