During the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, Chinese doctor Cheng Xian (Han Chin, Taiwan Golden Horse Awards Best Actor) flees from Japanese-occupied Shanghai to his hometown - capital city Nanking. He has with him his pregnant Japanese wife Rieko (Ai Saotome) and two children, his Chinese son from a previous marriage and Japanese stepdaughter, only to find the city already besieged by the Japanese. The Japanese army marches into the historical capital and unleashes the notorious three-month blood bath, later known as 'the rape of Nanking', on Chinese POWs and civilians. Before long the grim situation forces the Cheng family to seek refuge in the safety camps set up by Red Cross volunteers for Chinese civilians, especially the elderly, women and children. However, their nightmare does not seem to end as Japanese soldiers finally break into the camps......