With his brother awaiting his sentence, young peasant A Shui and his wife need to raise the bribe money to save him from the death cell. They decide to sell their unborn child. They chance upon a missionary couple who have gone through emotional and moral suffering, and still bear their sence of gulit and hope for saving grace. With the help of school principle Cheung,　they manage to sell their child and raise the money. However, they are too late for A Chong’s sentence. A Shui is totally broken and his wife drowns herself. The child, however, is returned by the police. At the end, the missionary couple take the child away, leaving A Shui and his village, to be swallowed up by the falling night.