It is Liu Cheng's biggest dream that Xiaochun may find a good teacher in the city and rise to stardom.

In the subsequent days, Xiaochun makes friends with Lili (Chen Hong), a young and attractive woman living upstairs.

Xiaochun turned out to be a child prodigy, and Liu Cheng resolved to devote his life to cultivate his adopted son's talent.

Xiaochun, angry at his father for choosing commercial success over music, refuses to play even when offered another violin.

Liu Cheng is so enraged that upon returning home, he tears up the award certificates that Xiaochun won in previous competitions.

In an effort to infuse passion and emotion into Xiaochun's playing, Professor Yu tells the boy the truth about his birth.

Director Chen Kaige told Asian Week in an interview that he first got the idea for Together after watching a TV documentary on a father and his musical prodigy child from the provinces.

Chen said he was struck by the father and son's aspirations of upward mobility that would never have existed in China before the economic reforms.