The setting is a heavily wooded, bandit-infested mountain pass somewhere in northern China during the Sino-Japanese War. In a dilapidated church lives a sullen young woman and her ferocious mutt. Passing through are strong, silent traders and porters, to whom she dispenses food, foot care and occasional sexual favors. Following an attack by bandits, a brutish porter stays on to tend his injuries and make moves on the woman. She, meanwhile, has the mutual hots for another porter, the handsome, kindlier “Sixth Brother." As tensions rise between the two men, the Japanese arrive to take the place by force...
After getting an abortion at a local clinic, unwed Beijing TV anchor Lu Yun decides to focus her next special report on women's reproductive issues, working at that clinic to research her topic.
During the Cultural Revolution, an unschooled young man is labouring in the countryside when he is suddenly assigned to teach in a near-by village school. Gradually, he finds the confidence to ditch the Maoist textbook and encourage the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings. At the same time, through a series of dream-like meetings with a young cowherd, he begins to sense the possibilities of a life beyond the parameters of traditional education.
