A special agent of frontier force in Canton tries to find a spy called aunt Mei.

In 1947, the Chinese Red Army sets a trap for the Nationalist forces in Jiangsu province.

Set in the period of land reform movement, a poor peasant Zhang gets a fertile land. But he doesn't work seriously on it, then loses money and runs into debt. Song wants to buy Zhang's land but his son thinks that they should help Zhang.

The film introduces the famous national model worker, textile worker Huang Baomei, who is played by the real Huang Baomei herself.

In 1949, as Shanghai faced liberation, prices soared, and people struggled. Students worried about tuition waivers. At a middle school, corrupt influences led to unfair waivers, angering students like Jiang Dacheng, who was expelled after being reported by Wu Guangen. Guided by Yang Ming, an underground party worker, Jiang Dacheng joined the revolution. He and classmates Lü Xiaoke, Chen Yuzhen, and He Guisheng formed the underground Young Pioneers, transforming the confiscated *New Youth Newspaper* into a wall newspaper to spread revolutionary ideas. They secretly listened to Xinhua News, printed leaflets about the People’s Liberation Army’s victory, and distributed them, causing panic among spies Wu Inspector and Principal Zhu. Teacher Yang Ming protected the children, but his actions drew suspicion. Jiang Dacheng learned of Yang Ming’s arrest plan and helped him escape. They celebrated Shanghai’s liberation, and Jiang Dacheng vowed to follow the Communist Party forever.

San mao (3 hairs) was a very popular Chinese comic strip first published in 1935-37, continued from 1948 into the 1990s, about a young orphan boy struggling with life in Shanghai.