Coalminer Han Sanming returns from Fengyang in Shanxi to his Three Gorges hometown of Fengjie to find his estranged wife whom he has not seen for 16 years. The couple meet on the bank of the Yangtze River and vow to remarry. Nurse Shen Hong comes to Fengjie from Taiyuan in Shanxi to look for her husband who has not been home for two years. The couple embrace each other and waltz under the imposing Three Gorges dam but feel they are so apart they decide to divorce.