The rich elderly merchant Liu Tsong-shan suffers: he does not have a son. There is a daughter and son-in-law Zhang, there is an orphan nephew Yin-sun, but his wife does not tolerate him and forces her husband to expel the young man, and he is forced to live in a hut almost without a livelihood. There is also a concubine Xiao-mei, who is expecting a child from a merchant. Tired of domestic squabbles and fearing that wealth (acquired not always honestly) would deprive him of his last hope of finding an heir, he burns all receipts of debtors and leaves for one of his estates. Before leaving, he orders his wife to guard the concubine.
Zhang and his wife, fearing that the birth of a boy as a concubine, would deprive them of their inheritance, decide to remove Xiao-mei, telling the merchant woman that she had run away. Old Liu goes with her news to her husband. He does not believe for a long time, but by believing, he becomes desperate. He orders all the poor to be summoned to the temple and each one endowed with money.
The merchant, continuing to repent of past sins, observes how the son-in-law gives the poor. The first to come are Da Du Tzu and Liu Tszyu-er with their son. Fighting over the sharing, they leave. Then comes the completely impoverished Yin-sun. The tradeswoman again mocks him. Tired of all this, Liu gives the son-in-law the keys to the house, and gives the nephew the money so that he watches the birth graves.
On the day of the commemoration of the deceased, Zhang and his wife go to the graves, primarily the Zhang family. Yin-Sun, meanwhile, is caring for the graves of Liu. The old people come. Gradually, old Liu begins to realize that her daughter, as opposed to her nephew, is now a stranger to the Liu family. When the daughter and son-in-law finally arrive, she herself takes the keys from them and gives them the Yin-sun.
It takes three years. On her father’s birthday, her daughter brings Xiao-mei with her little son - it turns out she hid them in a farm. Now Liu is happy: he has an heir, and peace in the family is restored.
