The film is adapted from two novellas published by Mo Yan in 1986, Red Sorghum and Sorghum Wine. Because of a mule, the parents of "my grandmother" Jiuer (played by Gong Li) want her to marry a 50-year-old leper who owns a winery. When Jiuer was riding in a sedan chair to get married, she was intercepted by a robber on the way. One of the men carrying the sedan chair, Yu Zhan'ao (played by Jiang Wen), fought off the robber, and Jiuer and him began to like each other. Three days later, Jiuer returned to her hometown to visit her parents. The sedan chair man suddenly rushed out of the sorghum field and snatched Jiuer away. They met in the sorghum field. When Jiuer returned to the winery, she found that her leprosy husband had died. "My grandmother" supported the Li family's liquor workshop. Soon Yu Zhan'ao officially became "my grandfather" and invented the method of brewing good wine 18 red. During the Anti-Japanese War, "my grandfather" and "my grandmother" jointly wrote a sad song.