Lu Jingzhou is reborn in 1998, facing a desperate situation as the local bully Zhao Jinhai forces villagers to sell their land for next to nothing. He sets a three-month deadline and stakes everything on his bold pledge to "grow gold from sandy soil." With not a penny to his name, he talks suppliers into extending credit for agricultural materials, uses the help of environmental officials to fend off the threat of a chemical plant, and leads the villagers in planting a premium sweet potato variety called Honey Red. He wins the first battle by a narrow margin, but the real test has only just begun.