Growing up without parents, Ma Sha has always worked as a lookout in a red-light district. When he is imprisoned for manslaughter following a customer's death, he breaks out of jail but is soon caught again and sent to a correctional institution on Orchid Island. Guided by his former elementary classmate, who is now a penal officer, Ma finally repents his wild past, writing down his stories and eventually publishing them.
In the early days of the war of resistance against the foreign power invasion, Wu is captured and most of his family members are brutally murdered. Wu swears to seek revenge. He tracks down the murderers one by one.
Oyster-gatherer Ah-lan is in love with the often-absent fisherman Chin-shui, but a bout of premarital sex leaves her pregnant and vulnerable to malicious gossip.
Three years had passed since Ichiro Takeo left Japan. He was a young physician with a promising future, until his medical error caused the death of a big-shot politician. He was discharged from the hospital and had since sailed around the world as an on-board doctor. As he was about to reach the Taiwanese piers of Kinmon Island, thoughts of his days in Japan crossed his mind - he reminisced about the Taiwanese girl, Yan, who had scooped him out of his misery during the time of the medical accident. At times of war, the two rekindle an old flame.
