In the early 1990s, orphan Jian Ai (Liu Tao) is forced to drop out of school due to her family's poverty and work in Guangzhou toiling as a small restaurant waitress and tea girl in a foreign trade company. Due to her intelligence, kindness and daring spirit, she works her way up as an excellent foreign trade merchandiser and business manager. But Jian Ai is not satisfied with the career leap she manages to achieve. After several setbacks, she establishes her own textiles company, embroiling herself romantically with affluent Lin Hengzhi (Raymond Lam) and his complicated family business. Upon the 1998 financial turmoil in Southeast Asia and the 2008 financial crisis, she relies on China's reform and opening up to succeed. China's booming foreign trade development eventually lifts her to be the head of a multinational trade company.
