In the chaotic final years of the Tang Dynasty, a group of bandits, driven to desperation by a famine, kidnaps the daughter of the village chief of Wujiazhuang, using her as a hostage to demand grain from the villagers. However, their plan backfires when the military ambushes and surrounds them. The leader is beheaded as a warning, and most of the bandits are killed or injured. The surviving members turn on each other, and in the chaos, the village chief's daughter, Tan Zhu, tries to escape but is captured by one of the bandits, He Nan. As they spend time together, a complex relationship of love and hate begins to develop between them.