Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in a small Mainland Chinese town, the story follows a middle‑aged couple and their three children as they navigate hopes, disappointments, and small victories that shape their lives. Each section centers on a different sibling, offering a close look at their dreams, struggles, and the quiet resilience that binds the family together.
Gao Wei Hong Zhang Jingchu embarks on a path driven by curiosity and a longing for something beyond the everyday. Her mother arranges for her to work at a nursery, but a mishap—dropping a child—costs her the job. After witnessing soldiers parachuting from a plane, she becomes fascinated by the idea of flight and service. She develops a crush on a male officer and even contemplates joining the military, going so far as to steal her mother’s money to buy him gifts; in the end, she hesitates and does not enroll. The image of enlistees lingers, pushing her toward an imaginative impulse: she knits a makeshift parachute and attaches it to her bike, parading down the street as if she could soar away. Her mother, alarmed by the audacity, intervenes, and the moment draws the attention of Guo Zi Liu Guancheng, a boisterous factory worker who becomes part of her evolving story. Weihong later works at a factory washing bottles and encounters Guo Zi again, their meeting in the woods hinting at a tentative, unspoken exchange. She finds companionship in an elderly man who plays the accordion, forming a father‑daughter bond that her own family initially resents. Through her parents’ connections, she steps into a new life when a district leader’s driver offers marriage on the condition that she takes a new job. Before she departs, she entrusts her older brother with a watch and bids farewell to the family she loves.
Gao Weiguo Li Feng endures a harsher social landscape, where disability makes him a frequent target of bullying. His parents shower him with care, which sometimes strains his younger brother, who shoulder the burden of looking after him. A moment at a bathhouse—where a firecracker startled his cigarette triggers a seizure—exposes the fragility of his world. Weihong asks Guo Zi to help exact revenge on a bully, but the plan is messy and fraught. A pivotal incident occurs when Weiguo goes to school with an umbrella to bring Weiqiang an item, only to be accused of peeping at the girls’ bathroom. He is beaten and publicly humiliated, and Weiqiang condemns him in front of everyone, even stabbing his leg with the umbrella in a moment of spite. Ostracized by classmates, he loses the support of most peers, save for one girl who offers a quiet act of sympathy. When the family discovers the depths of the mistreatment, a strong counter‑move emerges: the brother attempts to push Weiguo toward revenge, but Weihong intervenes to prevent further harm. The family’s complex dynamics are tested, and a rare glimmer of hope appears when a match is arranged with a girl who has a disability, allowing him to start a small food stall with his partner, a venture that gradually attracts customers and stability.
Weiqiang Tian Xiaojie occupies the liminal space between two siblings’ quests for belonging. His story unfolds as a portrait of adolescence and curiosity, with a charged fascination for the same girl who helped Weiguo earlier. When his father notices drawings of naked women in his textbook, the consequence could be expulsion from the family’s house, so Weiqiang leaves on his own, vanishing for days. Guo Zi tracks him down, and with Weihong they follow him to an elderly care home where he finds work and a sense of purpose among the residents. The next day, he boards a train and travels away from the town, leaving his family to wonder about his fate. Weihong, looking ahead, imagines that her brother has achieved the army dream she once pursued for herself, even if the reality he encounters is far more ordinary.
A few years pass, and the siblings’ paths converge again in the rhythm of ordinary life. Weihong returns to live with her family after a separation, while Weiguo and his wife continue their bustling business, an enterprise that draws in more customers than before. Weiqiang returns later with a wife and a son, carrying the weight of a missing finger that he does not explain to his relatives. He does not work in the same way and leans on his wife, who supports him as a stage singer. Weihong encounters the former army officer in the street, only to find that the person she once idealized now wears simple clothes and behaves like an ordinary man. In the end, Weihong remarries, and the three siblings visit a peacock enclosure with their families. Their quiet reflections about the bird’s opened feathers—the moment when the peacock finally reveals its display only after they’ve left—serve as a final, symbolic reminder that beauty and longing can emerge in the most unexpected moments, even as life moves forward.
