Story outline: During the Great Revolution, Chinese society is in turmoil. Yet Chinese farmers, bent over the soil from dawn to dusk, have little land of their own because of private land ownership. Most survive by renting fields from landlords and local gentry. In Wujia Village, on the northern slopes of the Wuling Mountains in southern Hunan, lives a landlord named Wu Daoyi, who owns hundreds of acres of fertile land. Tenant farmers from the surrounding area depend on renting his fields to make a living. In 1933, a severe drought leaves tenant farmer Wu Mingtian with no harvest and no grain to pay his rent. Wu Daoyi demands that he hand over his fifteen-year-old daughter in its place. His wife hangs herself, and with no way out, Wu Mingtian storms into the Wu household with a sickle in hand. He is eventually beaten to death with the household servants’ whips, while his daughter, Wu Hongying, falls into Wu Daoyi’s clutches. The family is destroyed. When the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army passes through Wujia Village, it establishes a temporary court and holds a public trial, executing Wu Daoyi by firing squad. Wu Hongying then joins the revolution. Following Red Army instructor Wang Jinshan, she lives through the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and land reform. Her husband, Wang Jinshan, also takes part in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. After enduring countless hardships, he is repatriated from the prisoner-of-war camp on Koje Island to Taiwan. He never forgets his original convictions and upholds the integrity of a Communist Party member. After returning to the embrace of his motherland, he attends the celebration marking the sixtieth anniversary of victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea...
