Zhang Zhichen, a city doctor, comes to visit his old friend from school Dai Liyan shortly after the war against the Japanese has ended. Dai is sickly although Zhang suspects it to be mainly a case of hypochondria. While visiting, he meets Liyan's wife, Yuwen and Liyan's young teenage sister Dai Xiu. Zhang and Yuwen has had a passionate love affair ten years earlier before she had been engaged to marry her husband. Due to her husband's sickness however, the couple has ceased any real physical contact. With Zhang back, both Yuwen and the doctor find themselves again attracted to one another. As emotions run high, Dai Xiu's birthday comes up. As the drinks begin to flow, Zhang and Yuwen's mutual attraction emerge clearly to everyone, especially to Liyan. Too sickly in his mind to care for his wife any longer, he begs Zhang to stay. Liyan then promptly attempts suicide by overdose but is saved by his friend. Zhang then decides that it is best that he departs. ~~ The film is a remake of director Fei Mu's 1948 film, Spring in a Small Town.