1988 Selection

Xu Lisha is a chemist ruined by her family background during the Anti-Rightist campaign of the late 1950s. Immediately after graduation, she is sent to wash bottles in a factory. She is rescued from this ignominious position by a factory cadre, Zhu Shiyi, who marries her. Xu Lisha thinks her troubles are over. However, she could'nt be more wrong. Her mother in law turns out to be a domineering and picky woman who expects her daughter in law to be the domestic servant she never had. When Xu Lisha resists, her husband sides with his mother. Eventually, the two of them exploit the advent of the "cultural revolution" to have Xu Lisha condemned for her taste in beautiful clothes. This phase ends with Xu Lisha buckling under and submitting to her husband's effective rape, aided by his mother. By 1984 Xu Lisha is on the up and up again. Restored to her research work, she has become a nationally famous medical technician. However, her marriage is long dead. Her husband is washed up and ignored at work. Thinking that she can get away from him at last, she tries to move out. But she soon finds out that although Zhu Shiyi may be down, he is far from out. Eventually, she is forced to move back in with him to a life she cannot tolerate. The well in the little lane where she has lived for so long has always been a major part of her everyday life. Now it assumes a more tragic dimension.