Based on the novella Early Spring by Rou Shi.  In 1926 Xiao Jianqiu, attempts to escape his work and the social injustice in the city by visiting the headmaster of a school in Lotus Village. He befriends the widow of a friend who had died fighting in the revolutionary arm, and at the same time he falls in love with the landlord's daughter. Later, the widow's son dies and in order to help her he decides to marry her. This gets the teacher reproached and attacked, the widow is overcome by shame and drowns herself. He resolutely leaves the town and plunges himself into the tide of the time; the landlord's daughter is quick to follow him.

Produced just before a comprehensive clampdown by the Chinese government, the film articulates many of the significant cultural issues facing China to this day. 

With Sun Daolin, Xie Fang, Shangguan Yunzhu, Gao Bo.