In the Long March column, young soldier Wang Aqi is determined to go to the front line to fight the enemy, but is assigned to the Quartermaster Department instead. Under Quartermaster Director Hu Chengyuan, he registers grain, salt, medicine and straw sandals, and records material losses as well as IOUs for grain borrowed from civilians. This account book does not only track provisions in and out — it also bears the Red Army's discipline, the bond between the army and the people, and the weight of every soldier's life. Ordinary people like the mute boy Tian Shitou, mess squad leader Lao Guo, and ethnic minority communities in western Sichuan together paint the arduous picture of the Long March. While crossing the snow-capped mountains, Hu Chengyuan gives his last padded coat to a comrade and freezes to death, leaving a lasting monument. He entrusts the account book and his belief — "once you write a debt down, you must honor it" — to Wang Aqi. This war-torn ledger is eventually kept in a museum, telling of those extraordinary, fiery years.