Jia Yucun, a scholar, is exiled to Yangzhou and becomes a guest of the salt inspector, Lin Ruhai. He teaches Lin's daughter, Lin Daiyu, and escorts her to the Jia family's Rongguo Mansion. Jia Yucun helps Daiyu's uncle, Jia Zheng, and is reinstated. Daiyu becomes close to her cousin, Jia Baoyu, but Wang Xifeng, a daughter-in-law, schemes to marry Baoyu to Xue Baochai, a relative of the family's matriarch. When Baoyu falls ill after losing a jade, the family forces him to marry Xue Baochai, pretending that she is actually Daiyu. Daiyu is heartbroken and dies shortly after. The family eventually declines, and Baoyu becomes a monk.
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