An underground CPC telegrapher, Li Xia, fights against the Japanese enemy and dies before the eve of Shanghai's liberation in 1939.
After being swindled out of his land by a local landlord in 1930s China, a grandfather commits suicide. His son burns down the landlord's house in a fit of rage, then escapes to join the PLA. His grandson later joins the PLA too in the 1940s to avenge his father, grandfather and mother.