Zhou Li, a French pastry chef, returns to his old neighborhood after his business runs into a financial crisis. There, he discovers that his mother, Zhou Xiufen, is suffering from a serious lumbar spine condition. Determined to take over the family's traditional sourdough steamed bun shop, he initially insists on modernizing the kitchen with quantitative standards, using infrared thermometers and digital proofing cabinets. However, his decision to discard steamed buns that fall outside his specifications infuriates Chen Jianguo, a neighborhood regular who is in a hurry to get his order. Worse still, his disregard for the activity of the traditional sourdough cultures and his mother's time-honored practice of adjusting alkaline levels according to the weather causes an entire batch of dough to turn sour and collapse. With the morning market facing a supply crisis and the neighbors questioning his abilities, can Zhou Li put aside his arrogance, combine modern temperature-control data with his mother's thirty years of traditional expertise, and truly preserve the reputation of the Zhou family shop and the warmth of everyday life in the old neighborhood?