The story of a poor silk farming family in Zhejiang and their hardships.

After being defeated in a fight by a local gang, local official Lu Fengyang sends his weak and sickly son Lu Xiaoqing to study with a master of the Kunlun school of martial arts. Recovered and strong, he comes upon the Red Lotus Temple, and puts up there for the night. Unable to sleep, he begins looking around the palatial temple, and discovers a room decorated with many images of Buddhist demons, and an altar to worship them... Purposely destroyed serial film whose 19 full length chapters (averaging 86 minutes each) originally ran 27 hours in length.

A hostess in Shanghai invites her secondary schoolmates to a reunion. They each reminisce about their lives, with some having difficulties in marriage or career. Some led destructive lives, while others contributed to the country.

In 1920s Beijing, a young student named Fan Jiashu falls in love with Shen Fengxi, a talented but poor street singer. Their romance is tested by class differences and the unwanted attention of a powerful warlord. Torn between three women from vastly different backgrounds, Fan becomes trapped in a tragic web of love, fate, and social pressure.

Twin girls separated at birth are reunited when the one raised in poverty becomes a servant in the household of her sister, now the pampered wife of a warlord general.