Forensic doctor Qing Ling travels to Sheung Shui village to look into and investigate the true events behind her brother's disappearance. The villagers are living in mortal fear of the curse of a creature known as the Water Monkey.
With the continuous advancement of artillery fire in 1947, Yangquan was liberated, and the Chinese Communist Party established its own city in ruins, becoming the first people's city created by the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The whole film takes the construction of the city as the main line, with the elimination of enemy agents and personal emotions as the secondary line, and narrates the liberation and construction of Yangquan as a reference for other cities across the country. It has shaped the revolutionary heroism of the Communists represented by Ren Gong and Liu Shuihe in the process of building the people's city, and the responsibility of not forgetting the original intention and keeping the mission in mind
Shui Sheng witnessed his father being killed by the "water monkey" monster when he was young. Ten years later, the water monster reappeared and killed the younger brother and father of the heroine Xiang Lan. In order to save her, Shui Sheng launched a fierce battle to break feudal superstitions and to catch the water monster.
A seven-year-old boy is sent to the countryside to be with his grandfather Li Fuchang. By pure chance, the old man finds out where an old friend is, whose days are numbered. He then decides to travel with his motorized tricycle to visit him, taking the child with him.
A farmer and his wife live in a rural part of Inner Mongolia with their three children. Chinese population control policies prevent them from having any more. The farmer sets out for the nearest town to obtain birth control. He comes upon a Russian truck driver who has ended up in a lake. The farmer takes the man back to his farm, and after initially being appalled, the Russian becomes enchanted with the peaceful life of the countryside and decides to stay. But his presence presages big changes for the peasants.