Gudang Garam follows the life of Gudang Garam founder Surya Wonowidjoyo's family through his early years, beginning in the early 1920s when his family moved from China Fuzhou to Indonesia, and traces his life from utter poverty as an Indonesian diaspora to founding the cigarette factory in Indonesia in the 1980s. In a parallel story, we follow the life of a young beautiful ballerina- Lelly, who eventually becomes the third wife of Surya in a romantic love story.