Weilong, a young woman from Shanghai who turns up on the doorstep of Madame Liang, her much richer aunt living the good life in prewar Hong Kong. Weilong wants to study in Hong Kong but has no money and is hoping her aunt might help her out. However, Weilong's father and aunt Liang, his sister, aren't on good terms. That she still takes in the girl suggests not a sudden and atypical outpouring of familial love or general pity for an inexperienced young woman, but rather foreshadows something more ominous: Madame Liang might see a way she can profit from having the beautiful and somewhat naïve young lady in her household, which has been surviving at least partially on the generosity of rich male acquaintances.