Zuo Shouquan is the director of the morning paper in a north-eastern city. He has a daughter, Zuo Mingming, who lives with his ex-wife. The girl is neglecting her studies. She is not particularly interested in her education. Her father wants her to move and start working at his newspaper. Zuo Mingming won’t have it; she plays in a band and her only dream is to pursue a musical career in the south. Father versus daughter, north versus south – a deeply rooted conflict between different systems of values in a contemporary Chinese comedy.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang negotiated cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party while also asking their Ministry of Defense to secretly formulate a plan for attacking the Communist army, codenamed "A-14". Unexpectedly, Japanese spies stole this plan in a vain attempt to blackmail the Kuomintang into defecting to Japan. The Ministry of National Defense immediately organized a "Black Phoenix" operation to recapture the "A-14" plan, and sent officers under the pseudonym "Black Eagle" to carry it out.
When the Cultural Revolution comes to an end and reform sweeps over China, two drivers of the Fifth Iron and Steel Factory set up a pancake stall in the free market in front of the factory, annoying the secretary of the Party Committee.
An old mansion, sealed for years, re-opens as a museum. A ghost is sighted by the museum's guide, our heroine, who has fallen for a social outcast, a scientist obsessed with finding ghosts with his machines.