Medical professionals are still suffering from brutal and ridiculous political legacies after the end of ten years of chaos.
Set in late Qing Dynasty, a revolutionary is caught and sentenced to death by government. A father offers a bribe to executioner to dip a steamed bun in the dead man's blood. The blood-dipped bun will be a medicine for the son.
Ouyang Lan is a woman doctor who served in the Chinese Volunteer Army in the Korean War. She returns home to Shanghai and a decision to adopt 2 orphaned children of a deceased colleague changes her life.