In His One and Only, a shocking but compelling picture of life in China before and after the advent of the communist government in 1949, this is the story of a boy from a poor family in the provinces whose mother forces him to marry an older girl while he is still an adolescent. Rebelling, he flees his home, settles in a different city and marries the daughter of a local strongman. But when the upheavals of war lead him to Shanghai, he falls in love with a local woman and secretly makes her his third wife, but is eventually driven to a breakdown as the pressure of supporting three families takes its toll.