A Chinese film featuring the Beijing Opera Troupe. The story is set during the War of Resistance in Japanese-occupied territory to the west of Shanghai. Shajiabang is a small market town on the marshy reed-fringed shore of Lake Yangcheng where Aqing, who is secretly a Communist Party member, works in a small tea-house patronised by officers of the puppet "Loyal and Just National Salvation Army". Unbeknown to her patrons, Aqing is helping care for eighteen wounded soldiers of the New Fourth Army who are hiding in the marshes...
An army officer has a chance encounter with a young soldier, the son of an old comrade in arms. The soldier tells the officer he has a sister who is also in the army. When the young soldier is killed in action, the officer visits her to pay his respects, and recognizes her as his own child, given up for adoption 18 years earlier. This presents him with a dilemma, wanting to reconnect with the only child he ever had, yet reluctant to tell her the truth about her parentage ...
