It is the day of the abdication of Emperor Puyi, and the Pang clan, a once-wealthy family, is slipping into decline. Zhongliang, a thirteen-year-old boy, arrives at the Pang estate to live with his sister Xiuyi and her husband Zhengda, a heavy opium user and the son of the family head. Ruyi, the head’s daughter, has been raised as an opium addict from birth and is deemed unmarriageable; she darts happily through the estate as Zhongliang arrives. Duanwu, a cousin with few prospects, longs to play with [Ruyi]. The three briefly share a doorway. Zhongliang is treated like a servant, including being asked to prepare [Zhengda's] nightly opium pipe; it is heavily implied that [Zhengda] sexually abuses him by forcing him to have sex with [Xiuyi]. After six months of ongoing abuse, Zhongliang flees the estate.
Ten years pass, and Zhongliang has become a gigolo who seduces wealthy, married women for his boss, Biggie. The con operates through a room where Zhongliang signals his partners, who burst in with black hoods over their heads and pretend to murder him; the woman is then blackmailed to keep the affair secret. Zhongliang’s success makes the scam highly lucrative, and Biggie treats him like a son. He has been pursuing a particular target, “the woman of Zephyr Lane,” for weeks, but lies to Biggie, insisting her husband is away and that they cannot proceed.
Back at the Pang estate, Zhengda has been seriously ill for ten years; when his father dies, [Ruyi] becomes the head of the family. The elders refuse to let a woman control the family’s fate, since women are “weak.” [Duanwu] is named to assist her, as he sits outside the line of succession. Yet when [Ruyi] uses her authority to expel the concubines, Duanwu supports her against the elders’ wishes; the elders beat him for his supposed lack of manliness. Ruyi reasons that the concubines have been granted the freedom she herself longs for.
Seeking to reclaim Pang money, [Biggie] sends Zhongliang back to seduce [Ruyi]. Zhongliang encounters his sister again, who reminds him of the debt he owes for helping him escape the first time. [Ruyi] falls in love with Zhongliang, and, to prepare for him, she seduces Duanwu, who promises he will take her with him when he leaves. Haunted by his past, Zhongliang ultimately abandons the plan and returns to Shanghai alone. [Ruyi] is heartbroken, unable to speak of anything else, and Duanwu is beaten by the elders once more.
To redeem himself, Zhongliang agrees to swindle the woman of Zephyr Lane. Biggie senses Zhongliang’s wavering loyalty and tricks [Ruyi] into traveling to Shanghai. She is accompanied by Duanwu, and both are exposed to the modern world for the first time. [Ruyi] is taken to a room across from Zhongliang’s rendezvous, where she witnesses his scam through the window. The woman of Zephyr Lane asks Zhongliang whether he ever loved her; he does not answer. She then throws herself from the balcony, and Zhongliang is left distraught as Biggie notes that Zhongliang is now permanently “ruined.” [Ruyi] confronts Zhongliang in the dance hall, repeatedly asking if he loved her or the Zephyr Lane woman, but he remains silent.
Back in Shanghai, Duanwu rapes [Ruyi] in their boarding room. [Ruyi] returns to the Pang estate, where [Jingyun] returns; Jingyun reveals that their childhood betrothal had been ended by his family. Zhongliang returns and fights to win her back, but she no longer loves him and plans to marry Jingyun. That evening, he prepares her opium pipe as he did for Zhengda, and with his sister’s help, poisons her pipe (and Zhengda’s before her) with arsenic. Struck with remorse, Zhongliang tries to stop [Ruyi] from taking the poison, but arrives too late; the next morning, as he boards a ship to leave, he is gunned down at the dock. Duanwu is proclaimed the new head of the Pang clan, while [Ruyi] is shown tied to a wheelchair, mirroring her brother’s fate. A brief shot returns to the doorway where Zhongliang, Duanwu, and [Ruyi] stand as children on the night of the Emperor’s abdication.
