Based on the book written by author Pai Hsien-yung and first published in 1983 in Taiwan. A-Qing, a young student is discovered during sex by a night watchman, young A-Qing is beaten and expelled from home by his violent abusive father. In a public park in Taipei he is found by Yang (a middle-aged photographer), who introduces him to three other teenage boys--all abandoned by their families because they were gay. They form a kind of surrogate family. When A-Qing meets Wang Kei-Lung, he falls madly in love.

In 1948, four young girls, daughters of Shanghai's elite, attending college in America find themselves unable to return after the Communists take Shanghai.

Rong Rong is the tough Mama Boss from childhood in pre-1949 Guilin until her disillusion in 1970s Taipei, where she struggles to run a noodle shop and contend with a host of colorful customers.

A woman's lesbian feeling towards two different female singers - one in Shanghai during late 1940s and another in Taiwan during late 1950s.