Guizhou province, southern China, spring 1980. Schoolboys Zhao Qiangsheng (Ma Guoxing) and Fulai (Wang Shibin), who've spent their whole life in a remote village, hear from a PLA soldier about a thing called a "city", full of people, buildings and cars, three mountains away. Full of curiosity, and with the orphaned Fulai fed up with being passed around the community, the two set off to reach it when their school is closed for five days.