VARIOUS SHOTS of the family life of a woman (a supervisor at the Wuhan steel factory) in the evening. She is washing clothes in the small sink in her tiny kitchen, while her husband is reading a book studiously at a worktable, with a pencil in his hand. The children are doing their homework. The woman hangs her clothes on the balcony. She then cuts out material and sits at her sewing machine to make something to wear for herself, while two of her children read, and the youngest sits on his father’s lap and looks at a picture book with him. Later on, one of the boys sits down beside his mother, who is still sewing, and asks her questions about a book he is holding, while his two brothers play a game of Chinese checkers with their father. CLOSE UP of a calendar and a black and white photo of President Mao Zedong with Zhou Enlai and an official diplomat.