During the economic reforms of the 1980s, three college students unite with a shared goal: to achieve the American dream. The trio consists of Cheng Dongqing, a country boy determined to escape a future in farming; Meng Xiaojun, a confident and skeptical intellectual; and Wang Yang, a dreamy and romantic poet. Xiaojun is the first to secure a U.S. visa for further studies abroad. Yang also gets the opportunity but chooses to stay in China for the sake of his love. Unfortunately, Dongqing faces repeated rejections from the U.S. Embassy. Disheartened, he reluctantly takes a job as an English teacher at a university, only to be dismissed for conducting private tutoring sessions. Meanwhile, across the ocean, Xiaojun struggles to find a respectable job and ends up working as a busboy in a restaurant.