The Lu clan is falsely accused of colluding with the enemy and exiled en masse to Suiyang Fort on the northern frontier. Here, there are only ruined walls and dilapidated houses, no food or coal. The court grants them just twelve shi of millet, yet demands that they pay one hundred dan of frontier grain within three years. Worse still, a black frost cold wave capable of freezing people to death is about to arrive in seven days. As the entire clan falls into despair, the young clansman Lu Zheng steps forward. He seals the gaps where the wind enters, repairs the smoke vents, searches for coal, and leads people to carve through the ice to catch fish. Little by little, he builds a livable, heated zone inside the abandoned fort. What others see as a land of death, he forcibly turns into a glimmer of hope for survival.