Based on Zhou Keqin's excellent novel, Xu Mao and His Daughters weaves a story about the life and sufferings of Xu Mao, an aging peasant and his four daughters in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. They struggle to make ends meet since his wife's death. Preoccupied with worries, he loses touch with his maturing daughters. It takes the stubborn but kindly intervention of a woman making a governmental inspection tour to cause father and daughters to appreciate their loving family.

Zhuang Li goes into business, is tempted away to a job created for her by a boyfriend and returns to her own business.

During the Cultural Revolution, the distinguished Marshal He Long is denounced and persecuted.