Seeking for a better life, Ah ju and Ah Wei, two orphan brothers, jump on the gold rush bandwagon travelling north-eastern bound in the 1930's Taiwan. Ah Ju sympathizes a moonlighting prostitute, Ah Ro, who is forced to sell her body by hardship in life. Ah Wei is attracted to a innocent Japenese girl who works in the brothel as a manual worker. In a sting action at the brothel, Japenese soldiers confisticate all the gold that prostitutes smuggled out from the mining compound. and seizes their life-time savings as well. Ah Ju dies in a mine crash. the japenese girl is forced to be a prostitute. Ah Wei goes crazy. Ah Ro takes her children and leaves the gold mine by the hill, facing an uncertain future alone.