画家黄仁杰和妻子的父辈当年曾是黑帮的小头目，两人并不做亏心买卖，当发现把兄弟陈在清暗地里贩卖毒品时，他们秘密地将毒品藏了起来，地点藏在一把铜锁里，二人各自执有锁和钥匙。陈在清将二人杀害，锁和钥匙也不知去向。多年后，黄与阮结婚，铜锁重新出现，更名为龙山的陈在清认出了黄仁杰，与另一黑帮展开了对铜锁的争夺。黄、阮二人与杀父仇人龙山展开了殊死的搏斗，最后仁杰与公安联手，利用一场画展引出了黑帮，终于将歹徒绳之以法。

17世纪上半叶，欧洲各国武装商船队纷纷东来扩张。此时，明朝仍在严厉海禁，“片板不得下海”。平民萧天远因反对海禁，遭朝中恶势力的迫害，当欧洲船队侵扰福建沿海，他又因祸得福，被赐命全权负责处理海边事务。他坚持开海，承诺朝廷每年上缴三百万两税银，终取得对海外通商贸易的权利。他依靠海商，团结海帮，打击海盗，重组了海上力量。迅速打开了对南洋和日本的市场。在此期间，巨贪宦官高嵩和阴险狡猾的赃官熊翼鹏，竭尽阴谋破坏通洋大计，但却被他一一化解，最终让正义之剑惩处了坏人，维护了国家的主权，也迎来了中国商人参加的第一次国际贸易的黄金岁月

民国时期，某省四海县，当地首富孟国富去世，生前留有遗嘱将家产平均分给两个儿子少强和少云（谭耀文 饰）。谁知不久之后，少强便被人杀害，而他的弟弟少云也随后伏法认罪。与此同时，聪慧机敏的赏金花探卡乃吉（郭涛 饰）正用破案得来的钱在酒楼花天酒地，还险些被豪放的芙蓉姐姐（郭金 饰）霸王硬上弓。关键时刻，一个神秘人物为他解围，并留下搬张银票和一封信，请他找出少强遇害一案的背后隐情。 为金钱所吸引，卡乃吉接受此案，并在美丽的女孩周琳琳（韩雪 饰）的帮助下深入调查。结果发现少芸的确不是真正凶手，与此同时，他们也离真相和危险越来越近……

In the 1970s, three children lived in the old Beijing Hutong, Wang David, Li Hongbing, and Su Moli. They were childhood sweethearts and grew up together. While they are growing up, the society changes dramatically around them. David inherited his father's business in the restaurant, but because he cannot make egg fried rice, he could only do some cleaning work. Hongbing and Moli fell in love, but eventually broke up. Hongbin went out to explore the world; Moli, who was pregnant, was unwilling to accept David who loved her, and turned to go south to pursue her dream of becoming a star.

The tight-knight community of a remote mountain village come to know and understand a strange, mute woman's past in the wake of her husband's death.