When Gu Tingting, a young worker in a silk factory in Suzhou, is suddenly notified by a court in Shanghai that she will inherit a large sum of money from her aunt as her adopted daughter, her cousin Feng files a lawsuit against her backed by a forgery. Judge Ping senses foul play, and meets with Tingting, who begins recounting her past.
Set in 1980s. Both of Mrs Wei's two daughters are going to get married. Mrs Wei asks her daughters' boyfriends for full set of furniture, color TV sets and wedding cars as essential conditions. The two young men get into trouble.
A man who becomes wealthy starts to have an affair and though his wife knows of it, she says nothing. Soon, the affair starts to have consequences and his business falls apart while the man’s sister starts to have a relationship with the brother of his wife.
After falling in love with Han Liren and giving birth to an "illegitimate child", Han Liren abandoned her and married a rich girl and cheated her out of the child. Huang Su then left the country, changed her name to Lin Luping, and became an actress. Sixteen years later, Huang Su was so popular that she was invited to perform in Shanghai. The young actor she worked with, Han Chen, was withdrawn and hated everyone, and everyone discriminated against him because he was an abandoned "illegitimate child". On stage, Han Chen played Lin Luping's son and was very successful. Later Lin Luping finds out that he turns out to be her biological son who was cheated away by Han Liren years ago. At this point, the theater owner Han Liren appears and wishes to get back together with Lin Luping, but is rejected by Lin Luping's mother and son.
After the end of the war, Mrs. Lu's eldest daughter's fiancé Situ Yan returns to Shanghai from Chongqing. When they meet, they find that he is an impoverished journalist, and cannot provide for them. One day, Situ Yan exposes a corruption case, which implicates many people, including Mrs. Lu's brother.
