In a land of two billion people, this touching portrait focuses on one earnest young man who leaves his struggling rural family to seek his fortune in a big city, represents the life of millions of migrants in China now. China is a nation on the move to the big city. By the year 2000, 200 million Chinese farmers will have left their roots, searching for a better life in big city factories.

The film follows Wu Zhong as he takes tearful leave of his childhood haunts and friends. His goal is to become rich and to send most of his money home to his loved ones. It takes many buses and trains to carry him from the familiar green rice paddies towards the seething factories on which he has pinned his hopes.

Eventually he lands a job in a huge textile factory. Here he works long hours under miserable conditions for low pay. Half his salary goes for food, he has no job security, and he does not want to share his sorrows with his family back home. Despite his brave face, Wu Zhong learns quickly about China's harsh economic reality. The system of the "iron rice bowl" - the lifelong guarantee of labor - has been abolished. A few may strike it rich, but many will suffer.