The serial, set between the years 1980 and 2013, depicts the moral life struggles of two half-brothers Kiu Tin-seng (Ruco Chan) and Lo Wai-son (Edwin Siu) during the late and post-colonial periods of Hong Kong and Macau. Historical events that were set against this era, including Hong Kong's 1980 Touch Base Policy, Macau's relaxed immigration laws of 1982, the 1991 goldsmith robberies, the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macau to China in the late 1990s, the 1998 Hong Kong financial crisis, the 1999 Macanese triad wars, the 2003 Hong Kong SARS outbreak, and the 2008 Hong Kong financial recession, serves as some of the key plot vehicles that drive the changing fates of the brothers and their families.