This play ranked as one of the Four Major Nanxi plays together with White Rabbit, Moon Pavilion, and Killing the Dog. The original play consists of 48 acts. In this version, Professor Hong Wei-zhu and Wen Yu-hang, Lin Zu-cheng selected the following six acts for an abridged story, Farewell by the River, Changing the Letter, Carved Window/Throwing oneself into the River, Meeting Mother, Anchoring the Boast, and Double Worship. Under the supervision of Zhang Yu-wen from the Northern Kunqu Opera Troupe, distinguished actors from the GuoGuang Opera Company, Liu Haiy-uan, Wen Yu-hang, Liu Xi-rong, Luo Shen-zhen, Wang Ying-hua took part in the performance.

The story is about a lady named QianYu-lian, on whose behalf her father was selecting a son-in-law. Her stepmother preferred the rich merchant, Sun Ru-quan. Yu-lian, however, would rather marry the poor scholar Wang Shi-peng, who gave her a wooden hairpin as a betrothal gift. Wang Shi-peng later passed the imperial exam and became a zhuangyuan. Declining the prime minister's proposal to marry his daughter, Wang Shi-peng was demoted to the plague-infested Chaoyang. Sun Ru-quan, still enamored by Yu-lian's beauty, forged a divorce letter from Wang Shi-peng, intending to cheat Yu-lian into marrying him instead. Yu-lian's father saw the letter, was and became so furious that he threw up blood and died. Yu-lian's stepmother locked her in her chamber until she would consent to marry Sun Ru-quan. Yu-lian preferred death to complying with her stepmother's will. She climbed over the window and threw herself into the river. Fortunately, an official passing by, Qian Zai-ho rescued her and adopted her as his own daughter. Five years later, Yu-lian thought Shi-peng had passed away, so she went to the Puti Temple to hold a memorial service for him. Shi-peng, on the other hand, had come to the same temple to offer a memorial service for Yu-lian, whom he thought had perished in the river. The two recognized each other from the cloth and wooden hairpin. Finally, they were reunited as husband and wife.