Due to the trouble times in the 1930s, Army Commander, Lu Zhen Hua (Yiping & Ruping's father) took with him, his 8th wife, Wen Pei (Yiping's mother) and his 9th wife, Xue Qing (Ruping's mother), and moved into the French territory in Shanghai. His 9th wife, Xue Qing was very sly and evil, whereas his 8th wife Wen Pei was the complete opposite. Xue Qing soon had Wen Pei and her daughter, Yiping (Vicki Zhao), driven out from their home.
After being framed by Xue Qing & forced out of the Lu house, Wen Pei & Yiping's life then became very harsh & difficult. One day, Yiping, came to find her father, to try & get some household money off him for the maintenance of her mother and her. Unfortunately she ran into the Xue Qing instead and ended up having a huge arguement with her. Her father then took Xue Qing's side, and beated up Yiping with a wip, an event that Yiping could never forget. From then on, Yiping decided she was going to get revenge, revenge for the harsh life that she lived, for her beating, for her entire loveless life.
To earn a living independently, Yiping decided to go out & look for a job. Unfortunately she was unable to find any office work without any high qualifications, so she was forced to accept a job at the 'Big Shanghai' night club as a song girl. Yiping knew that Wen Pei would never agree to her working in a night club so she worked there without telling her mother. Whilst singing there, she met a news reporter, Shuhuan, who immediately became deeply in love with Yiping. It was not long till Yiping and Shuhuan became friends, until Yiping learnt that Ruping (Xue Qing's daughter, her half sister), was actually in love with Shuhuan. Yiping then came up with the idea of winning Shuhuan's heart as revenge for how Xue Qing & Lu Zhen Hua treated her. However who is to know that Yiping actually ended up falling in love with Shuhuan herself??
After realising that she had lost to Yiping, Ruping was heartbroken. But luckily she had Du Fei, a good friend of Shuhuan, also a reporter, beside her. Du Fei is actually secretly in love with Ruping, but Ruping does not realise this until later on. Even when she did find out, she expressed to Du fei that she only looked upon him as a friend, for her heart still loved Shuhuan. Even so, Du Fei did not give up, but remained in love with Ruping, and did everything he could to make her happy.
One day, Shuhuan accidently saw Yiping's old diary filled with her words of hate and revenge towards the Lui family. When he read that she had only became close to him, and started a relationship with him was to avenge the Lui family, he was devastated & shattered. He decided to break off with Yiping completely and so, he went to become a reporter reporting from the front line of the battle field. When Ruping discovers this, she knew it was her chance, & probably her only chance in winning Shuhuan's love, so she went after him. When Ruping appeared in front of him on the fighting battle field, Shuhuan was so touched by her absolute love that he agreed to engage with Ruping.
During the night of the engagement party, Yiping came to congradulate them, & even sang a song for them. She pretended as though she was really happy for them, but in actualy fact you could see the sorrow in her eyes. After she sang the song, Yiping started drinking, and her expressions changed. She got all drunk, then had someone take her up to the bridge to see the lowering sun. Shuhuan was worried & scared to death that something might happen to her, so he hurried after to see whether she was alright. When he found her she has climbed on top of the bridge, but she couldn't recognise him, then she fell into the water. Shuhuan managed to rescue her up and hurried to the hospital. It was after then that Shuhuan revealed to an unconcious Yiping that it was because he loved her so deeply that he couldn't face her 'not loving him'.
After Yiping recovered, Ruping, upon seeing the situation, knew that she could never replace Yiping in Shuhuan's heart so she decided to back out of the 'two women, one man' situation, therefore the hate between the two half sisters were distinguished.
Xue Qing upon seeing the situation became really angry and ran to Yiping's home to rage off her anger. At first Yiping wanted to keep peace, but when Xue Qing pushed her off the edge, her temper shot up high and she shouted out the secret kept beneath Yiping's heart for a long time, that Xue Qing actually had a secret lover. Unfortunately, Lui Jian Hua accidently heard from behind the door of this so he had Xue Qing locked up. Trying to help her mother, Ruping agreed to contact her mother's secret lover. She wasn't to know that her heartless mother would leave her and her brothers to run away with her lover, as well as taking all of her father's fortunes.
Broken hearted, Ruping left a letter, and left home. At first, she wanted to die, but with the fighting situation going on, she decided to join the Red Cross out in the battlefield, by becoming a nurse on the battlefield.
Du Fei who thought that Ruping may be dead, felt free of responsibility & went to become a reporter on the battlefield. Shuhuan and Erhao (Yiping's half brother, Xue Qing's son) also put all his efforts into the war by joining the army, leaving Yiping & Fang Yu (Yi Ping's best friend & Erhao's girlfriend) alone back home awaiting for their return. Coincidently, while out on the battlefield, Du Fei met Ruping again. Ruping finally realised who had loved her the most, touched, she decided to spend the rest of her life with Du Fei, but on the wedding day Du Fei doesn't turn up.... Yiping whilst back home waited day after day for Shuhuan to safely return home, but when the war is finally finished Erhao returns home alone without Shuhuan.........