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.

A group of bright teenagers are recruited for a special college program for young geniuses only to find themselves socially awkward among their more normal peers.

A decade ago, a medical student and a steelworker become pen-friends when they chance upon the same copy of Leo Tolstoy's "Resurrection". Off the page, passion and hatred mingle and two murders are committed, and the two friends part ways. A young police officer starts to investigate, but in vain. A decade later, the young graduate student has become a renowned doctor, and has married his sweetheart. The steelworker returns to the city, bringing with him his handicapped girlfriend. Meanwhile, the police officer can't shake off the unsolved mystery of the murder cases. The last ten years have brought with them great change, each of the characters falling deeper into webs of vice and desire. They must choose the path to salvation, or the road to hell.

A group of people that disappear after a mysterious light falls upon the city, leaving the survivors to try and unravel the mystery.