It is the winter of 1942. The film opens with Master Fan as a wealthy landlord in wartime Henan. When the village is suffering from famine, Fan still has plenty of food to feed his family and the villagers. A group of bandits come and rob the village, eventually burning it down to the ground. Fan's son died in the process of stopping the bandits. Fan flees his hometown with his daughter, wife and daughter-in-law. They are also accompanied by a servant, Shuanzhu. Along their way west, they meet Xialu, a fellow villager, and the latter's family. They decide to flee together, but Fan's food supply and money are robbed by NRA soldiers amid the chaos caused by Japanese bombing.