In the 1940s, in Xujiachuan in southern China, Fu Gui (Chen Chuang) was a wealthy young master who had been unruly and idle since childhood. Despite being such a wastrel, he somehow married Chen Jiazhen (Liu Mintao), the beautiful and virtuous daughter of a rice merchant, making everyone around them envious. But although he had a comfortable home, healthy parents, and a devoted wife, Fu Gui never learned to cherish what he had. Led astray by the swindler Master Long, Fu Gui became consumed by gambling, eventually losing his family fortune and ancestral home, driving his father (Li Ding) to his death, and sending his pregnant wife away. Overnight, he was left penniless. Jiazhen remained devoted to him, returning with their daughter Fengxia to keep living with Fu Gui.
