On December 13, 1937, Nanjing, then the capital of the Nationalist Government, fell. Some officials abandoned the city and fled, but many officers and soldiers remained, vowing to defend the crumbling city to the death. Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye), an officer of Song Xilian's army, and his comrades launched a fierce street battle with the Japanese army. Their weak but tenacious resistance was eventually suppressed, and tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians became prisoners, and the Yangtze River was stained with blood amid the sound of gunfire; in the safety zone of Jinling Women's College, female teacher Jiang Shuyun (Gao Yuanyuan) rushed back and forth, trying her best to help and save all her compatriots who came here for refuge, but the bestial Japanese army had already been eyeing the women hiding there; Rabe's secretary, Mr. Tang (Fan Wei), dealt with it carefully and compromised, but made the wrong choice to protect his family, and he paid the price for it; the dancer Xiao Jiang (Jiang Yiyan) was unwilling to abandon her feminine tenderness even if she fled for refuge, and her choice at the critical moment injected a bit of strength under her feminine shell; the Japanese Kadokawa (Nakizumi Hideo) followed the troops into this riddled and dilapidated city, and in this purgatory on earth, his soul felt an unprecedented huge shock. Smoke billowed, blood flowed like a river. In the context of the great era, people had to endure the ruthless gifts of the times and make painful choices that affected their fate...