Lhasa sits at the center of this film's account of Tibet's transformation since the Chinese army's 1958 invasion. The film traces the city's shift from a small, walled, feudal capital, built around monasteries and centuries-old trade routes, into a metropolis of concrete towers and glass storefronts that increasingly resembles other major Chinese cities. It puts particular weight on the last twenty years, when investors from China's prosperous east coast moved into the region for its natural resources and cheap labor, encouraged by local government tax breaks and other incentives. Street-level footage sets old quarters against new construction, showing monks and market stalls a few blocks from apartment blocks and cranes. The film treats this as a case study in forced urbanization rather than organic growth, asking what happens to a place's traditions when outside capital and outside politics decide its pace of change. It stays close to Lhasa itself rather than surveying Tibet more broadly.