The story spans from 1965 to the early 1970s. Heavily pregnant Zhao Di, the unwanted second wife of an older man, was chased out by her husband's family and forced to return to her own family. She gave birth to a pair of twins, Shun Fatt and Su-mei. As Su-mei had two moles on her face, which was said to be bad luck, she decided to give her up due to the pressure of wanting to build a better life for the rest of her family.

Zhao Di takes over her family farm with the help of Ah Long after the 1969 floods. After the government started reclaiming land for development in 1977, licensed owners like Zhao Di are compensated but her brother accuses her of having an affair with Ah Long to get the money for himself. Meanwhile, Osman does not approve of his son playing in a rock band as he fears the negative influence, causing his son to run away from home. As for Ah Hee and Rani, they decide to get married but their traditional parents are against it.

The story of four ex-cons struggling to reintegrate into society – Tiger is a former gangster who took the rap for his boss Blackie; Mad Dog is a serial criminal who has apparently been convicted of every single offence in the Penal Code except for 'unnatural sex'; Panther was betrayed by his partner during a robbery attempt; while Jian Ren was a soon-to-be groom convicted of sex with an underage prostitute during his bachelor's night party.