When Luo Xin'gang a new manager arrives in an ailing silk-printing plant, he maintains that the remedy for the loss in profits is to go back to producing handmade silk handkerchiefs for export -- but the conservative authorities resist any change at all. In the background lurks the shadows of the black market and other forms of graft.
Hu escapes from prison after 8 years, only to find that his father was killed by the landlord and his fiancee Jin Zi was married to the landlord's son. The blind, widowed mother-in-law is a termagant. Hu plots his revenge.