In the 1930s, a country boy named Tang Shuisheng came to Shanghai to seek refuge with his uncle (Li Xuejian). With his recommendation, he became the personal servant of the song and dance queen Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li). Xiao Jinbao was the woman of Shanghai's tyrant Mr. Tang (Li Baotian), but she had an affair with his subordinate Mr. Song, who had been coveting Mr. Tang's position for a long time. Mr. Tang was alerted by the sudden death of his uncle. He took Xiao Jinbao, Shuisheng and others to a small island where only the widow Cuihua and her two children were, and ordered to kill all the strangers and familiar faces on the island. Xiao Jinbao had a different understanding of life in her relationship with Cuihua, and gradually became very dissatisfied with Mr. Tang's cruelty, but her fate was also controlled by Mr. Tang.