A man returns to his native Beijing after serving in a labor camp, to find that he has no family or prospects or friends. He tries to make a living, but his old underworld contacts drag him back into a life of crime.
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
