 Part One, "Eight War-Torn Years" tells the story of the early life and marriage of a young couple, Sufen (Bai Yang) and Zhang Zhongliang (Tao Jin) and the strain produced when the husband is forced to flee to Chungking, losing contact with the family he leaves behind in wartime Shanghai.Part Two describes Zhang Zhongliang's return to Shanghai after a second marriage into a wealthy bourgeois clan among whom by chance his impoverished first wife Sufen has found work as a maid.Part One is about 100 minutes in length.