Before the breakout of the Sino-Japanese War, Hong, Wang, and Peng were best friends. Hong and Wang secretly joined the local guerrillas after the Japanese began invading China. Hong ran a small business and Wang worked as a courier for a Japanese trading firm, hiding their true identities in order to collect intelligence on the Japanese for the Eight Route Army, and established a railway guerrilla unit. Wang soon found out that the trading firm he was working for was indeed an intelligence unit of the Japanese. They infiltrated the Japanese special forces and eliminated many Japanese. Suspicions arise from the Japanese as to the real identity of the individuals suspected of being part of the railway guerrilla forces, so called Flying Tigers unit, so the Japanese began to form a counter-spying operation and other under-handed means by recruiting Chinese traitors to uncover and eliminate them all.

In the early 20th century Pearl River Delta, “self-combed women” like Shang Meiju, who vowed never to marry, adopted and raised girls to sell as concubines. Ah Di, a self-combed woman, was forced into marriage by her fiancé, Tan Afu, but Shang Meiju intervened, leading to a “fake marriage” agreement. Shang Meiju’s adopted daughter, Yan Zhi, was offered for 20,000 silver dollars but deterred suitors with her beauty. Ah Di developed feelings for Ah Fu, and their secret meeting was discovered. Shang Meiju’s lover returned as a buyer for Yan Zhi, who, feeling like a commodity, committed suicide. Overwhelmed, Shang Meiju went mad, witnessing her sister’s wedding procession fade away.

Cheng, a young man who is set up by the chief of police, must leave the life he knows and Qiu, the woman he loves, to start again. After escaping prison Cheng quickly and violently moves his way up the ladder of Shanghais criminal underworld to become on the most powerful mob bosses in Shanghais history. But fame and notoriety take their toll when Cheng finds himself stuck between the looming Japanese army and the scheming local secret service. Matters are only made worse when he bumps into the love of his life QIU, along with her writer husband. Will love re-kindle in the dusk of an era?

After an accident, a chauvinistic executive gains the ability to hear what women are really thinking.