Adapted from the novel by Da Mi, Romance in the Alley explores the lives of two neighboring families, and their contrasting personalities and parenting styles.

Yan Ni and Guo Xiaodong play textile mill worker Huang Ling and her husband Zhuang Chaoying, a high school teacher. They have high expectations for their children, but also experience tension in their relationship. By way of contrast, Huang's colleague Song Ling and her engineer husband, Lin Wufeng, played respectively by Jiang Xin and Li Guangjie, lead a more harmonious life, and grant their son greater freedom.

As time passes, the children of both families enter university and begin their careers. Their experiences of sorrow, joy, as well as the challenges they confront are interwoven with the tapestry of the era, including episodes dealing with the resumption of the entrance exam system, and the dynamism unleashed by reform and opening-up.