In the early morning of July 28, 1976, after putting their children to bed, the couple make love in the back of their truck.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, a rescue team informs Li that her twins are trapped under a large slab of concrete.

Assumed to be an orphan, Fang Deng is adopted by a military couple, Wang Deqing and Dong Guilan, who bring her back to their home in Beijing.

Ten years later, she moves away from home to study in a university in Hangzhou, where she meets a graduate student, Yang Zhi, and begins an intimate relationship with him.

In the meantime, Fang Da's grandmother and aunt ask him to live with them in Jinan but he ultimately remains in Tangshan with his mother.

After deciding not to take the National Higher Education Entrance Examination despite his mother's insistence, Fang Da starts working as a cycle rickshaw driver, where he unknowingly gives a ride to Fang Deng's adoptive father, and eventually becomes the boss of a successful travel agency in Hangzhou.

On Lunar New Year's Eve, she tells her adoptive father that she will be marrying a foreigner and will be emigrating to Vancouver with her daughter.

[8] Aftershock won the Best Feature Film and Best Performance by Actor for Chen Daoming at the fourth annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards.