Seventeen-year-old Alex Jackson is thrilled when his father, a cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, asks Alex to join him on assignment in China. Not only will he get some time off from school, but Alex, who's a Chinese history buff, know this trip is the chance of a lifetime. But Alex and his dad cannot know that they will becomes part of the great historical events that sweep China in the spring of 1989. As students and civilians demonstrate in Tian An Men Square for changes in the government, Alex feels the thrill of being a reporter. But his excitement turns to horror and dismay as the movement turns violent and he witnesses the death of his Chinese friend. Alex and his father know they must communicate the story to the rest of the world, but at what cost to their own lives?