When Zhao Xiaoyi passes the entrance exam to enroll as an art student, it’s more to her than a chance to pursue her creative dreams. After years of close supervision at home, it also means freedom and independence. Away at school at last, a lonelier Zhao finds there may be more to miss at home than there is to discover on her own. Meanwhile, things are not all well with her mom, as career troubles and domestic problems collide to overwhelm her.

Mr. Wu, a Hong Kong movie star, is kidnapped in Beijing by Zhang Hua's gang. The police quickly form a task force and begin the search, ignoring that detectives in charge have only twenty hours before the deadline.

Army volunteers train for places in China's 1984 National Day parade, where they are expected to be a perfect marching unit.