Sergeant Tong is wracked with guilt after he unwittingly kills a young girl whilst capuring a criminal named Cheung. When the girl's sister is later kidnapped in a ploy to get Cheung released, Sergeant Tong vows to find and rescue her before she comes to harm.
During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor’s beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.