Pan Yun, director of the Fushun War Criminal Management Centre, discovers that his adopted daughter is the child of a war criminal. Although he raised her for many years, he entrusts a friend to reunite her with her birth mother.

Hunan boy Zhu escapes from local tyrants chase, joins the Hunan troop and gets promoted soon. The superior recommends Zhu to the military school where he meets undercover CCP Cheng Kang. Zhu participates in the Northern Expedition after graduation and joins CCP later.

The story of the Opium War between China, in the waning days of the Qing Dynasty, and the British Empire, in the 1830s, and the subsequent takeover of Hong Kong by Britain; through the eyes of the key figures, fiercely nationalistic Lin Zexu, and opportunistic British naval diplomat Charles Elliot.