Lin Yan, a top student from a poor family, finishes the college entrance exam first, confident that he will become the province's top scorer. Eager to repay the uncle and aunt who took him in, he is instead mistakenly accused by them of performing poorly and cruelly thrown out. The kindhearted Chen Shuzhi takes in Lin when he has nowhere else to go. The uncle secretly takes over a million-yuan celebration banquet that had originally been secured by Lin's reputation. After several confrontations, the vice principal moves the banquet to Chen's restaurant. Lin later gathers evidence exposing his uncle's illegal use of prohibited ingredients, leading to the restaurant's closure. When the exam results are announced, Lin ranks first in the entire province, leaving his relatives overwhelmed with regret. A top academician makes an exception to accept him as a protégé, and Lin leaves his painful past behind to pursue his studies at a prestigious university.