Cui Ye is an ordinary Go teacher whose life spirals into chaos after an accidental entanglement in a crime. As he gradually descends into illegality, his police officer brother, Cui Wei, relentlessly pursues him.

The 12-episode series follows Wang Xiang, an ex-train driver who had worked his whole life at the steel plant in a fictional small town in North China, as he attempts to solve the mystery behind a brutal murder during the autumn of 1998. For more than 20 years, the murder has haunted him and other people who worked at the steel plant as they struggled to come to terms with the loss they’ve experienced.