Zhang Yuansheng is 64-year-old who was originally a camel herder. Having been born in poverty, as the age of 17 he began studying camel herding in the desert and acquiring the the life skills necessary for working with caravans and travel extensively. Later, because of development in transport, the profession of camel herding started to disappear. Zhang Yuansheng's travels into the desert is the main narrative of the film, and the films records the life of the last generation of Minqin County desert nomads.