As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Only Lai’s grandmother seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances. A gifted student, Lai wins a scholarship to study at the prestigious Peking University, where she soon falls in with a theatrical band of individualists and misfits dedicated to becoming their authentic selves, despite the Communist Party’s insistence on conformity. When student resistance hardens under the increasingly restrictive policies of the state, the group joins the masses of demonstrators and dreamers who display remarkable courage and loyalty in the face of danger. As 1989 unfolds, the spirit of change is in the air.