A young woman retraces the footsteps of China's teenage female soldiers of the Long March and encounters untold stories of courage and hope in the face of extreme deprivation and brutality. The Long March was a massive military retreat of over 200,000 troops on foot over 12,500 kilometres that lasted from 1934 to 1936. Elly, a 28-year-old journalist from Beijing, embarks on a 5,000 kilometre odyssey that takes her from Cangxi in central China to Xingxingxia in the Gobi Desert in the northwest of China. She uncovers the tragic and chilling story of the destruction of the Western Route Army - the greatest military failure in the history of the Chinese Red Army. As she sets out in search of history, she is forced to confront her identity as a modern Chinese woman.