The story is told from the perspective of a young boy (铁头, Tietou, literally meaning 'iron head') growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in Beijing.

Three episodes – Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution – show the family members evolving, e.g. from the real father, the "loving patriarch," to the protective but unemotional stepfather.

The first episode, entitled "Father," begins with a wedding between Lin Shaolong and Chen Shujuan in the early 1950s, shortly after the Communist victory.

In these early years Tietou's father creates for him a blue kite, a symbol that will remain throughout the film as a sign of better days.

The father meanwhile, who works in a library, unbeknown to him, submitted "advice" through a well-meaning colleague to the Party as per the Hundred Flowers Campaign.

Li felt haunted by his role in sending his friend to the work camp which resulted in Lin's death.

Li spent every moment helping out the mother and child, and every penny in easing their distress in the rapidly declining society.

Soon, malnutrition during the Great Leap Forward takes its toll and Uncle Li dies due to his poor health.

The stepfather, a prominent party member about to be disgraced, worries about saving his wife and stepson and does what he can to provide a safe life for them before it is too late.

In a voice-over, he tells of his stepfather's death from a heart attack; his mother is sent to the work camps, but his own fate is left unknown.

The party is also shown reaching out for those who seek to undermine it and no one can escape: not the student, not the ordinary librarian, and not even the soldier who fought for those very ideals.