Where the Wind Settles

During the final phase of the Huaihai Campaign, Sheng Peng, an injured ROC captain, leads a small squad through a retreat that grows increasingly desperate as the battle above them spirals toward defeat. They encounter an abandoned boy nicknamed Dog Two and decide to bring him along on their perilous march. Their group eventually boards a ship bound for Keelung, Taiwan, seeking safety and a chance at a new life.

Upon arrival in Taiwan, Sheng Peng is discharged for his injuries, and Huang Te-shun and Fan Chung-yueh desert the army to stay with him. The deserters live under the radar as military police pressure looms, making every day feel provisional. They settle into a flat in a military dependents’ village in Taipei, clinging to each other for safety and a sense of belonging.

Sheng uses bribes to secure National ID Cards for himself and his companions, a crucial step toward legitimacy and mobility in the new society. The documents open doors that had been tightly closed, signaling a shift from mere survival to possibility. This act also binds the trio closer to the life they hope to build in Taiwan.

The rescued boy grows into Feng-hsien and begins attending school in Taipei. Sheng Peng deepens his connection with Chiu Hsiang, who offers to teach Feng-hsien piano at her home. The piano lessons bring warmth and a renewed sense of family, drawing Sheng closer to Chiu Hsiang and her sister Chiu Mei.

Huang Te-shun and Lin Ah-yu, a Taiwanese woman who rarely speaks Mandarin, marry and start a life together. Fan Chung-yueh, unsettled by the new arrangement, withdraws to the southern mountains. Their choices reshape the group’s future as they seek stability in a changing land.

Years pass, and tragedy strikes when Huang dies in a fire while attempting to rescue a child. Fan Chung-yueh returns to mourn his friend and the life they might have shared. Sheng and the others are left to bear the emotional cost of the shifting world around them.

Sheng Peng remains haunted by memories as he grows older and becomes drawn to Chiu Hsiang. She contemplates traveling to the United States to marry Chang Ming-jui, an old acquaintance, signaling a possible escape from Taiwan’s political climate. Sheng’s longing intensifies as the distance between past and present grows broader.

A sequence of gifts and a confession of love becomes entangled with danger when Chiu Hsiang’s professor father is swept away by secret police for alleged dissidence. Chang Ming-jui’s connections further limit her choices, leaving her with little say in her fate and forcing departure. The fragile happiness they sought is undone by political oppression.

Lin Ah-yu, now a widow who speaks little Mandarin, remains a quiet presence in Sheng’s life. Sheng makes it clear that she should leave the next day, pushing her toward a separate path. Her lingering memory underscores the long shadow of the families fragmented by war and exile.

In the 1970s, Feng-hsien and Chiu Mei’s friendship grows into a tender romance that softens the earlier tensions of a divided life. Their relationship adds a new sweetness to Sheng Peng’s years, echoing the possibilities that persistence and memory can hold. The family lineage continues to find light in the next generation.

Sheng Peng attends the wedding of Feng-hsien and Chiu Mei, a milestone that brings together generations. At the ceremony, he also encounters Chiu Hsiang, who has relocated to the United States, bridging distances with a shared history. The moment ties the past to the present even as people live across oceans.

Sheng Peng dies of a heart attack in 1987, a year that also marks Taiwan’s end of the White Terror and the lifting of the travel ban to the mainland. His death closes a long chapter shaped by migration, memory, and the long arc of divided families. The country’s political changes accompany personal endings in his life.

In 2010, Sheng Feng-hsien travels from Taiwan to Shandong to meet Sheng Peng’s brother-in-law. He learns that Sheng Peng’s wife Ma Chiao-lin and their baby died within a year after Sheng left, a sobering coda to a life shaped by migration and divided families. The revelation brings the story full circle, tying together generations across continents.