Few events of the 20th century have so dramatically engulfed such a large proportion of humanity as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of China that created the communist state. Millions suffered and untold others died, yet the revolution remains barely understood. Through a series of family interactions and personal stories, Morning Sun creates a narrative landscape that allows the viewer to follow the stories of the parents and children and even the actors whose own family histories unfold over the years covering the early People's Republic and the Cultural Revolution. It is a film about the cultures and convictions that created the language, style and content of the mass movement that would infect the imagination of rebels and presumptive revolutionaries throughout the world. Its exploration of the Utopian ideals of the revolution gives insight into China of the 21st century.