Ming has been in prison for twelve years, having been charged with murder. He has lost touch with his family entirely, nobody visits him any more and he feels desperately lonely. He spends all his time writing. He then enters some of his writing into a literary competition. A young girl named Ling also enters the contest and when she hears that Ming has won the first prize, she decides to pay her competitor a visit. Once she hears Ming's life story she decides to try to do something about his predicament and contacts Senator Leung. Leung, a member of the new government, decides to talk to the prisoners; in doing so he realizes that their problems can be put down to lack of love at home - an observation that shocks him to the core, for his own young son is also something of a problem child. Leung decides to fight for the prisoners' cause, and in doing so his own popularity begins to dwindle . . .