Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

In the chaotic world of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun, who should have been living in peace, is drawn into the chaos of the war.