Required to retire from his job as a utility man at a Peking Opera theater, Old Han is at loose ends, wandering the backstreets of Beijing looking for something to correct.

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

An old teahouse in Beijing serves as the stage for a drama that unfolds over several tumultuous decades of modern Chinese history, from the waning days of the Qing dynasty to the eve of the People's Republic.

Sixteen-year-old An-ran gets into repeated trouble because she refuses blind obedience to authority, openly challenging and correcting a teacher who makes a mistake in class. She is different.

An elderly veteran of WWII living in peaceful retirement with his son and the latter's family becomes increasingly lost in wartime memories and reminiscences, much to his son's consternation. One day, an item the old man reads in a magazine prompts him to go off unannounced on a war-related quest. The son goes searching for his father, and in doing so reaches a greater understanding of both the old man and the generation he represents.

An astonishing murder case occurred in the Ximen police station in a certain place. The criminal Amuyin had an affair with the wife of the Yang family's eldest son, and murdered Yang's mother, the Yang family's eldest father and daughter. Yang Hua, the youngest son of the Yang family, is serving a sentence in prison for assault.