Eighteen Springs 1997

Manzhen Jacklyn Wu Chien-Lien is an educated girl, working in a Shanghai factory as a clerical assistant, who helps support her family alongside her elder sister Manlu Anita Mui Yim-Fong, a nightclub hostess. At the factory, Manzhen meets two former male classmates, Xu Shuhui Huang Lei and Shen Shijun Leon Lai, and the three become a close, supportive trio. Manzhen falls in love with the introverted Shijun, who hails from a wealthy family in Nanjing and has come to Shanghai to avoid inheriting his father’s merchandising business.

Unable to marry the man she loves, Manlu decides to marry a wealthy, decadent playboy, Zhu Hongcai Ge You. Meanwhile, Manzhen and Shijun face growing obstacles to their relationship. Shijun’s family, convinced that Manzhen’s sister’s occupation taints the family name, opposes the romance and tries to arrange for him to marry a cousin, Shi Cuizhi Annie Wu. Manzhen and Shijun quarrel, and they part ways under a cloud of disappointment and hurt.

Manlu is unable to bear children. To keep her husband, she orchestrates a cruel arrangement: Manzhen—who visits overnight—is locked in Zhu’s mansion and raped by Zhu. Manzhen becomes pregnant and is kept prisoner, cut off from contact with Shijun. When Shijun comes to see Manzhen, Manlu sends him away, wrongly believing that Manzhen has rejected his love because of their social differences.

Manzhen escapes from the hospital after giving birth to Zhu’s son and takes up a life as a schoolteacher in another town. By the time she manages to write to Shijun, he has already married Cuizhi. Cuizhi and her mother-in-law burn Manzhen’s letters to Shijun, sealing their separation.

Many years pass. A desperately ill Manlu tracks down Manzhen to ask forgiveness. Before she dies, she returns Manzhen’s biological son (fathered by Zhu) in the hope that Manzhen will raise him. Manzhen still harbors pain toward Zhu, who is remorseful for the rape, but she decides to stay with him for the sake of their child.

Fourteen years after their parting, Manzhen and Shijun meet again by chance at their favorite restaurant in Shanghai. They catch up on each other’s lives and realize, with a quiet ache, that no matter how deeply they still love each other, their existing obligations prevent them from ever embracing again. The film then shifts back to Shijun’s search for Manzhen’s missing red glove, the moment that first sparked their romance.