在这部1980年代的爱情爱情片中,曾经，关雨波（芦芳生 饰）是学校里唯一一个考上了大学的高材生，他的名字因此响彻校园，成为历史。如今，四年过去，命运让关雨波再次回到了闭塞的小镇之中，成为了一名镇政府的工作人员。本以为能够逃离这个封闭的世界，哪知道转了一圈之后却依旧回到了原点，关雨波感到现实是如此的讽刺。
失意的关雨波只能向酒精寻求安慰。某日，他意外遇见了如今在供销社上班的成丽雯（杨采钰 饰）。远在学生时代，关雨波就喜欢上了成丽雯，后因为分隔两地而渐渐淡忘了这段感情。如今旧梦重温，关雨波内心里对于成丽雯的感情蠢蠢欲动，可是成丽雯却对眼前这个颓废的男人态度冷淡。
Gongmu township, central China, autumn 1982. After graduating from university, and as part of his "grassroots" government training, Guan Yubo (Lu Fangsheng) is assigned to the remote, mountainous township of the Tujia ethnic minority to work as its publicity/education officer. Xiang Yu'e (Li Shutong), his girlfriend from college, has to remain in the city. Yubo works directly under the mayor, whose current government challenge is to meet birth-control quotas. Feeling lonely, Yubo befriends an old cook, Tian, who used to be a teacher but whose career was destroyed by an anti-rightist campaign. One day Yubo bumps into his secret first love from high school, Cheng Liwen (Yang Caiyu), who happens to be in the township working in a local shop. She's polite but uncommunicative. Unlike Yubo, she didn't manage to get into university, due to her family's political problems. Later, the two of them visit her father, who now lives alone in the mountains, making wooden birdcages. Gradually the two...
为什么要准备好纸巾。没有任何一个时代是能够挽留的。易中天：爱在1980。郑世平的电影绝对不是1980年代的爱情。永恒之女性，引导我们上升？——《1980年代的爱情》观后感。1980年代的一张皮。男权世界固化的爱情。1980也不会存在的爱情。80年代初的现代爱情故事。1980年代的爱情 | 我俩永隔一江水。
