The male protagonist Lin Yanzhou and the female protagonist Shen Qingru have been childhood sweethearts in an ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River. Yanzhou was influenced by the new trend of thought and went to study in France. When he returned, he brought the concepts of democracy, republic, science and freedom, and became a radical reformist. Qingru, on the other hand, adhered to traditional ethics, bound her feet, and demanded that "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue" as the norm. However, as she turns 60, Qingru slowly awakens. The huge ideological gap between the two people collided with family interests, traditional ethics, and revolutionary ideals in the wave of changes of the times, and finally led to beauty.
