Two teenage girls make a pledge to each other to be as "man and wife" in a small Chinese fishing town. The notions of women's rights or sexual freedom are absent in their oppressive patriarchal culture, and when one becomes happily married to a stranger, the other is cruelly betrothed to the abusive son of a wealthy family. Seeking to free herself from a lifetime of abuse, Hui-hua desperately looks for a way out.

Li Tzu-Liang is returning to Hong Kong with the ashes of his wife. He now has to bring up his two sons on his own. Though he is quite well-off, he his plagued by debts and when he loses a large sum of money betting on horses, he has to turn to dangerous loan-sharks. Here starts a spiral which gets him and his two sons deeper and deeper into trouble.