Song-lian perde o pai e as dificuldades financeiras a obrigam a abandonar os estudos e a se tornar concubina de um homem rico. Ao mudar-se para sua mansão ela descobre que o senhor já possui outras três esposas, e que escolhe todos os dias uma delas para passar a noite, colocando lanternas vermelhas na porta de seu quarto. Aos poucos Song-lian vai começar a entender as intrigas e sabotagens, o jogo que acontece entre as mulheres que competem pela atenção do marido.
A married village worker teams up with an old girlfriend to try to dig a well for his water-starved village. The well collapses and they are trapped. Their enforced confinement leads to them exploring their feelings for each other and those around them.
When the villagers in Qingshuilian village along the Xiaoli River in northern Shaanxi have to evacuate to intruding forces of Hu Zongnan, only a stubborn grandfather is left behind.
In a mountain hamlet in eastern China, a poor woman faces trial after trial. Sold into marriage as a child, she is left a young widow and enslaved by her mother-in-law, who sells her to a poor peasant. Her second marriage turns out to be happy until fate takes away her husband and son. Now seen as a bearer of bad luck, she becomes a social outcast.
