A-Te used to be a social movement fanatic. But after suffering the pain of divorce and the death of his child, he changed his profession and became a taxi driver. Ma Le, a young aboriginal man, came to Taipei alone to earn a living on construction sites. However, unable to bear the exploitation, and in a rage, Ma Le accidentally killed a site superintendent and was sentenced to death. A-Te gave Ma Le a ride in his taxi on the night that Ma Le committed the killing and their two fates were thereafter intertwined.
Mei-Hsia's mother
This is a story located in a small town in Taiwan during the 50's and 60's. Mei-Hsia is from the most prominent family in town. Yun-Lang works in the local peasant assocation. They like each other, but Mei-Hsia is afraid to tell her mother about their seeing each other. They wait till Yun-Lang sends a matchmaker to Mei-Hsia's family. There was no way that Mei-Hsia's family would agree to their marriage. Mei-Hsia's parents send her to a relative in the northeast of Keelung, in an attempt to stop them from seeing each other, but Yun-Lang follows her there. Mei-Hsia's relative doesn't stop them until Mei-Hsia's mother finds out. Now their love is an open affair. This time, it's the Mei-Hsias turn to propose a marriage between the two families. To everyone's surprise, the Yun-Langs turn it down. Mei-Hsia and Yun-Lang planned to elope, but they failed. She kills herself. At last, Yun-Lang can call Mei-Hsia his wife by marring her memorial tablet.
The startling contrast between old and new Taiwan is the subject of Wan Jen's epic of traditional identities coming into conflict with an urban life, emphasizing the situation of women.
