Ding Weimin

In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian becomes a concubine of a powerful lord and is forced to compete with his three wives for the privileges gained.

When the villagers in Qingshuilian village along the Xiaoli River in northern Shaanxi have to evacuate to intruding forces of Hu Zongnan, only a stubborn grandfather is left behind.

In a mountain hamlet in eastern China, a poor woman faces trial after trial. Sold into marriage as a child, she is left a young widow and enslaved by her mother-in-law, who sells her to a poor peasant. Her second marriage turns out to be happy until fate takes away her husband and son. Now seen as a bearer of bad luck, she becomes a social outcast.

A kind-hearted village girl attempts to raise a child whose father was taken as a political prisoner.

A married village worker teams up with an old girlfriend to try to dig a well for his water-starved village. The well collapses and they are trapped. Their enforced confinement leads to them exploring their feelings for each other and those around them.