Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

During the dates of celebrating the Emperor's 80th birthday, an opera troupe from southern China was invited to come to Beijing to perform for the Emperor. Afterwards, the opera troupe was granted to stay in Beijing and became what we had known as 'Peking Opera' today.

Both husband and wife at this well known kite family were killed by the Japanese bombers, leaving behind the grandmother and her two grand-children. The grandma threw herself into the Anti-Japanese War, starting her courageous fight against the invaders.