Set in 1976, Ye Chuan, the party secretary of a certain city Dongfeng Chemical Equipment General Factory, resolutely implemented the task of trial-manufacturing large-scale chemical equipment issued by the State Council and the Ministry of Petroleum and Chemical Industry.

This film is adapted from the novella of the same name by Shui Yunxian. Fu Lianshan, the deputy director of the Provincial Electric Power Bureau, volunteers to go with Chief Engineer Liang Youhan to the Electric Power Bureau in Jiajin region, where the leadership team is in great chaos, to carry out the reform of the management system. They receive the support of intellectuals and cadres such as Dai Bing and Guo Xiaocheng. However, they encounter opposition from Guo Cheng, the Secretary of the Jiajin Prefectural Party Committee, and Da Wang, the deputy director of the Jiajin Electric Power Bureau, and others. Fu Lianshan suffers setbacks and is pushed out of the Electric Power Bureau. Guo Cheng then orders the transmission of electricity with an overload, resulting in a serious accident. Although the reform fails, history is bound to move forward.