Cheng Do (Donnie Yen) is the well-educated younger son of an unpleasant, miserly salt baron who pours attention on Cheng, grooming him to be a scholar, and ignores his hardworking elder son (Yuen Yat-chor). The brothers have a loving relationship with each other, despite some strain from their father's unequal treatment of them. Both brothers are skilled in Styles of Chinese martial arts, though their father disapproves of Cheng practicing kung fu when he should be studying.