A girl returns to the city after the Cultural Revolution but can not get a job because of her disability. With the help of people around, she starts up a flower shop.
In the snowy countryside of northern China, Wen receives a telegram informing her that her father is dead. She travels to the city and finds he was branded a reactionary in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. She is distraught, and on the way home, she is harassed and attacked by thugs, but she stays in the home of a kind-hearted doctor.