Although new friendships and new love await her, a college freshman discovers that university life is not as simple as she had hoped.
The film focuses on the suffering of Chinese who were imprisoned in a forced labor camp called Jiabiangou in the Gobi Desert in winter 1960 under Mao Zedong on the grounds that they were "rightist elements". The film tells of the harsh life of these men, who coped with physical exhaustion, extreme cold, starvation and death on a daily basis.
Based on the voyages of Admiral Zheng He, the explorer who led seven expeditions to Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Africa during the 15th century.
