After Japan’s surrender, a power vacuum opens up in the Sanjiang region of Northeast China. Fang Shirong, a Kuomintang official sent to take over the area, wants to recruit bandits and build an army. He murders five local patriots and frames bandit chief Zhang Xiaolin, hoping to use the Chinese Communist Party to wipe Zhang out before bringing the bandits under his own control. Zhao Tiezhu, a Communist underground operative, is ordered to investigate the truth. After seeing through the plot to sow discord, he goes to Snow Wolf Mountain to warn Zhang Xiaolin, but fails to persuade him and instead reaches out to other bandit groups.
The four major bandit groups wage a bloody battle for weapons left behind by the Japanese. Through careful scheming and ruthless tactics, Zhang Xiaolin sends in undercover agents, buys people off, and launches surprise attacks, successively swallowing up three rival groups and growing into a formidable force. Fang Shirong sends “White Peony” Li Guizhen up the mountain under the pretext of putting on a show for the troops, hoping to win Zhang over. But Li Guizhen becomes entangled with him in an absurd relationship of mutual exploitation and calculation.
