On the streets of Jicheng in the 1990s, Lai Chunyan, a Sichuan girl who fled an arranged marriage, sets up a Spicy Hot Pot stall. She has a striking appearance and fiery personality, and fends off troublesome customers with sharp Sichuan dialect, earning the nickname Spicy Hot Pot Beauty from locals. Preston Hayes, the owner of a local Ballroom, is a warm and righteous man who immediately recognizes Lai Chunyan as the girl who helped him back in Sichuan, and has long held gratitude for her. He asks a mutual acquaintance to help him get close to her, but when thugs harass Lai Chunyan at the Ballroom, a chaotic scuffle breaks out, and Lai Chunyan mistakenly assumes Preston is allied with the thugs, throwing him to the ground. Preston is not angry at all, instead he stands up for her and drives the thugs away, then openly confesses his interest in her. Not long after, Feng Jianguo tracks Lai Chunyan down to Jicheng from her hometown to force her into marriage, holding her hostage with a Bride Price she cannot afford to pay, leaving Lai Chunyan with no choice but to run away from home. One snowy night, she is crying alone outside the Ballroom when Preston finds her and drapes his coat over her shoulders. When Lai Chunyan asks to borrow money to pay off the Bride Price, Preston agrees immediately, and proposes a fake marriage to solve both of their problems. The Sichuan girl and the Northeast China man enter a contract marriage, and their days together are lively and full of laughter. They fight off
