A man with a shadowy past becomes obsessed with a female detective and starts stalking her. As she uncovers his murderous spree, which includes her boyfriend and others close to her, she is forced into a deadly showdown with him.

HK businessman Kiu doesn't have time to woo a girl. On a trip to Saigon, he offers financial help to poor girl Shun's (very troubled !) family if she'll come and live with him. With a sense of duty but no love, she agrees, too timid to even tell boyfriend Lik just after losing her virginity to him. Love fails to blossom between Shun and Kiu in HK, and Kiu starts to drink heavily. Sandy, Kiu's luscious secretary takes advantage and gets it off with him in the gym and digusts Shun in the process. Shun gets drunk and is picked up in a bar, nearly raped, and rescued then befriended by a fellow Vietnamese, a photographer, in what is clearly a setup. Turns out Sandy is behind this ruse as well, to get Shun out of the way and have Kiu all to herself. But things don't go according to anyone's plan. Will Shun give up Kiu and his money to go back to Lik ? Will Sandy hold her nerve and push ahead ? Will the guys Sandy paid to set up Shun have their way with Sandy instead ?

Love in Sampan is the tale of an unfortunate young woman named Kiu. As she explains in the opening narration, she has known three men: Wah (a boy who worked in her family's shop), Chuen Wang (a local gang boss whom she is compelled to marry) and Man (a university student). But when she accidentally witnesses her best friend, Kim, fooling around with a man, Kiu's sexual curiosity is truly aroused ... and begins to grow.