The film tells the story about the daughter of a Nationalist general who revisits the famous summer resort Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi province in 1980 and falls in love with the son of a senior general of the Chinese Communist Party.

During the Cultural Revolution, the director of a farm collective studies medicine on her own in order to provide a more effective alternative to the collective's "capitalist" health care clinic, then investigates and exposes a sinister plot by the clinic's staff.

At the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, Qiu Shi, a poet who has been in prison for six years, is transferred elsewhere by boat under the guard of two officers. During transit, he meets a series of passengers, who have also faced hardships in recent times.