After a long and difficult trek from the north, the Lü family is finally reunited in Kunming. Yet the war is not yet done with them, and in the furnace of a country driven to the edge, danger still prowls the very skies above them.

Disoriented in unfamiliar surroundings, and abandoned by a crumbling state, they do their best to rebuild some semblance of a normal life amid the hardships of rural living and the constant Japanese bombing raids.

And yet, despite the myriad challenges they face, the rugged beauty of Yunnan province's deep blue skies and the kaleidoscopic colours of the flowers blooming as far as the eye can see still make a deep impression on them that even the trials and tribulations of war cannot expunge.

In the struggle to survive, the youngest of the Lü's, May and Kiddo, must take on burdens meant for someone much older, all the while trying to piece together a shattered childhood.

Meanwhile, for those family members, friends and colleagues left behind in Beiping, life proves insufferable and, in some cases, fatal.