The triennial competitive examinations held over the course of more than one thousand years of Chinese history were the principal means of filling the ranks of the official bureaucracy. Success in these examinations brought instant fame to the winning candidates and a rapid rise in their position on the social scale. In addition, men whose names appeared together on the list of successful candidates for the same year shared a fraternity similar to that of alumni of the same university.

The present opera tells the story of four such officials and their different responses to a single lawsuit thus exposing the official corruption and social inequality which was so much a part of life in old China.