Set in the late 1920s, Early Spring deals with a teacher on the brink of political commitment who comes to a small village to visit a former colleague of the May 4th movement. He accepts a teaching post in the village, and begins to settle into village life. When he falls in love with his friend's sister, rivalries develop in the village that end in tragedy and reinforce the politics of the wavering teacher. Early Spring was much criticized both during and after production for subordinating political content to the central romantic theme. Scott Meek and Tony Rayns write in the BFI publication, “Electric Shadows”:
“In retrospect, the most remarkable thing about Early Spring is the tenacity with which Xie Tieli and his collaborators held to their conception of the project in these difficult circumstances. The film follows the novel in giving at least as much weight to the central romance as to political questions, and Xie's direction spiritedly matches the emotional elements with such baroque visual flourishes as a tracking-shot along a piano keyboard and a generally exuberant use of camera movement and montage. It was one of the first films to be re-released after the overthrow of the ‘Gang of Four', and it rapidly renewed its original popularity. In 1979, the China Film Corporation took it to Cannes, to mark their first attendance at the festival for many years.”