Fifty years of modern Chinese history (1900-1950), including wars, revolutions and corrupt politics, as seen through the life and times of a simple Beijing policeman and his family.
A man who becomes wealthy starts to have an affair and though his wife knows of it, she says nothing. Soon, the affair starts to have consequences and his business falls apart while the man’s sister starts to have a relationship with the brother of his wife.
Da Xiang, a girl whose father died early, was deceived and sold to a brothel, and her desperate mother chose to commit suicide. Now a prostitute, she faces a tortuous life.
