 For To-hung, a contented wife, mother, and novelist, life is optimistic. Her latest novel has won a prize and she finds herself blissfully pregnant. Her sister, To-li, is both beautiful and popular. Unfortunately, the men in their lives are not so ideal. To-hung discovers that her husband has an illegitimate son. She tries to cope with the situation, and even brings the child into her home. But when To-li s married lover leaves her, the sisters attempt to flee the emotional chaos of their lives by vacationing in a desolate area in North China. There, they face their pasts and find the resolve to go on.