Set in a fictional port city during the Republican era, this is a tale of gratitude spanning thirty years. As a young boy, Pei Xingzhou seeks help from his employer, Jia Tianxia, to treat his seriously ill mother, only to be publicly humiliated. Shen Yunniang, the daughter of the wealthy Shen family, generously comes to his aid twice. Together with her father, Shen Wanjia, she teaches him bookkeeping and jade appraisal, giving him the means to survive in turbulent times. War and forced migration tear the two apart, and they lose contact completely. Using the gold bars gifted by the Shen family, Pei Xingzhou builds his fortune and becomes a shipping magnate in the port city thirty years later. At a business banquet, he unexpectedly encounters Shen Yunniang, who has endured endless suffering in the Jia household. Determined to uncover the truth, he discovers that Jia Tianxia orchestrated her father's kidnapping years ago to force her into marriage. After marrying her, he seized the Shen family's assets and subjected her to domestic violence.