A family is persecuted by I-Kuan Tao, a feudal religious organization.

Two famous comedians from pre-Revolution days perform a series of sketches in a theatre for a group of Party cadres. The stage performances blend over into absurdist, self-contained fantasy episodes where the two comics allegorically parody Party propaganda and ideological orthodoxy.

"Toward a New China" tells the story of Chang Weiliang, a metallurgical engineer studying in the United States who was shattered in 1945 under the rule of the Kuomintang. His ideal of industrial salvation was shattered. After liberation, he saw that technicians were not respected. He was unhappy, not active, and could not see the power of the working class. Military representatives helped him raise his awareness. On October 1, 1949, New China was founded, and Engineer Chang and the workers became the masters of New China.

Commander-in-Chief Lu Dahai and the majority of shipbuilders strongly demanded that the 10,000-ton cargo ship Dongfang be should be produced with all domestically produced parts. As the leader at the time, Chen Zongjie, a member of the Party Committee of the Sinotrans Bureau of the Communist Party of China, believed that the quality of domestically produced main engines and navigation instruments was not good, and ordered them to be replaced with imported goods, otherwise no trial voyage would be allowed.