When her husband is kicked in the groin by the village head, Qiu Ju, a peasant woman, despite her pregnancy, travels to a nearby town, and later a big city to deal with its bureaucrats and find justice.

Wang Shuangli is Deputy Director of the local Cultural Centre, and hopes to be appointed Director. However Old Ma is brought in from the country and installed as Director. This starts a long train of events with Wang's cronies using the bureaucracy to try to oust the new director.

Adapted from Zhou Meisen’s novella, this wartime drama follows Chinese POWs, Central Army scouts Tian and Liu alongside Eighth Route Army cavalry captain Meng and soldier Zhang, imprisoned in Japan’s “Death Camp No. 9.” Rival escape plots collide: Sichuan captain Lao Qi’s men tunnel through mine shafts even as Meng’s group plans their own breakout. Camp commandant Major Nagasaki appoints collaborators, tortures and exposes dissenters, and uses a comfort woman to bribe Liu. When guerrilla agent Zhang Mazi is executed, Meng and Zhang Dielong sacrifice themselves under blistering sun to save their comrades. Amid bayonet executions and armed revolt, the prisoners wage a final, desperate battle to smash the camp gates and reclaim their freedom.

After getting an abortion at a local clinic, unwed Beijing TV anchor Lu Yun decides to focus her next special report on women's reproductive issues, working at that clinic to research her topic.

If money can't buy happiness, can it at least buy control over others? Xiang is hard-working, running a small sesame oil business. Her husband is lazy and drinks; her son is blood simple. When Japanese investors provide capital to expand Xiang's business, she has the wealth to raise her social standing and buy a wife for her son, Dunzi. When money and a forceful personality fail to bend others to her will, including daughter-in-law Huanhuan, Xiang must find another way to tranquillity.