It was written by Ye Xin, based on his 1992 novel Educated Youth.

[5] The series follows five innocent-eyed teens (all portrayed by first-time actors) who travel more than 2000 km from remote Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture to Shanghai searching for their unacquainted parents — former sent-down youths who in order to return home (in the late 1970s or early 1980s) abandoned them in the countryside.

They teens did not expect, however, that their unannounced arrivals would create myriads of economic and relational problems for their urban parents, many of whom already remarried with new families.

Sinful Debt hit home with a national audience, particularly those affected by the devastating Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and its Down to the Countryside Movement, registering a record-setting 42.62% audience share in Shanghai.

A sequel also written by Ye Xin, Sinful Debt 2, was first shown in 2010, returning many of the older actors from the original series.