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Classic overview

Chuk Tai-ming elopes to Hong Kong with Shum Tsui-hung in defiance of his father but soon succumbs to harsh conditions and ill health. Shum becomes a courtesan to fulfil Tai-ming's last wish of funding his younger brother Chi-ming's studies in Australia, while creating the false impression that she is a rich widow. Chi-ming returns in summer and a chance encounter in the nightclub evolves into a budding romance. Tormented by a love doomed from the start, Shum pretends to despise the poor suitor. The rejection is taken hard by Chi-ming, who snubs the woman in public. Shum plunges into despair, taking gravely ill. Her lawyer Lee Chung-ling finally breaks the silence, making Chi-ming attuned to the woman's unspoken suffering after she's been laid to rest.