Like other 1980s films from mainland China, this story of a triumph in creating better production in a local factory does not rise above the need to insert propaganda statements wherever possible. A silk-printing plant in Jiangnan, in the south of China, has been doing very poorly in its sales. When Luo Xin'gang a new manager arrives, he maintains that the remedy for the loss in profits is to go back to producing handmade silk handkerchiefs for export -- but the conservative authorities resist any change at all. In the background lurks the shadows of the black market and other forms of graft that are erased with a caveat at the end of the film stating that these are "practices from the past that no longer exist."