A Chinese film featuring the Beijing Opera Troupe. The story is set during the War of Resistance in Japanese-occupied territory to the west of Shanghai. Shajiabang is a small market town on the marshy reed-fringed shore of Lake Yangcheng where Aqing, who is secretly a Communist Party member, works in a small tea-house patronised by officers of the puppet "Loyal and Just National Salvation Army". Unbeknown to her patrons, Aqing is helping care for eighteen wounded soldiers of the New Fourth Army who are hiding in the marshes...

The story of Qin Xianglian and her unscrupulous husband is quite well-known in China; this is a slightly abridged production of the Beijing opera adaptation of the tale. This is a Chinese National Peking Opera Company production starring Wang Yige as Qin Xianglian and Han Shencun as Chen Shimei.