In 1969, amid the chaos of China's Cultural Revolution, a man known only as "the fugitive" finds himself confined to a remote labor reform camp in northwestern China due to his confrontations with a local rebel faction leader. Inside the camp, his world unravels as his wife divorces him, and his daughter cuts ties with him entirely. Fast forward to 1975, he receives the devastating news that his 14-year-old daughter has tragically died in an accident while engaged in a school labor activity, her efforts memorialized in Issue No. 22 of the News Bulletin. With a heart full of longing and despair, he decides to take a daring step; he escapes the camp in a desperate bid to view a screening of the reel that may offer him a final glimpse of his beloved child.
In another part of this troubled landscape, an orphan named Liu and her younger brother navigate the struggles of life after the death of their mother and the abandonment by their father. As they attempt to survive in a relentless environment, Liu resorts to stealing a reel of Heroic Sons and Daughters to replace a lampshade that had burned in a previous accident. The fugitive, witnessing this act of desperation, manages to retrieve the reel, but fate intervenes once again as it falls into other hands. The followings of their lives become interwoven, driving both the fugitive and Liu into a shared quest for the elusive News Bulletin reel.
The projectionist, Fan, who wields the formidable power of controlling film screenings, learns of the reel's condition and places the blame on a deliveryman, prompting him to rally villagers in a haphazard effort to clean and restore the damaged film. In a tense encounter, the fugitive confronts Fan at knifepoint, demanding access to the treasured reel. Eventually, the moment arrives when the film is screened, and in a fleeting second, he catches sight of his daughter, leading to an emotional upheaval where he desperately pleads for the clip to be replayed.
Complications arise when security officers, having been tipped off, mistakenly identify Liu as the fugitive's accomplice and proceed to beat and detain her. Driven by a sense of justice and loyalty, the fugitive rushes back to defend her, and both find themselves tied up together. Fan, in a moment of compassion, screens Heroic Sons and Daughters once more, and the poignant story of a father and daughter reuniting strikes a chord with the guards, moving them to tears. In a moment of shared grief, Liu expresses her longing for her own father.
As morning breaks, the fugitive is once again escorted back to the confines of the camp. Yet in an act of kindness, Fan covertly slips him two precious frames of the film that feature his daughter. From a distance, Liu waves at him, clutching a film-lamp he had given her as a parting gift. However, their fleeting connection is shattered when the guards discover the hidden frames and carelessly cast them aside into the unforgiving sand. In a moment of pure anguish, the fugitive shouts in despair as Liu bravely retrieves the discarded frames, holding onto the last remnants of their bond.
