朱丽（井莉 饰）有过一段不幸的婚姻，丈夫周保罗（凌云 饰）是富家子弟，因与自已相爱而遭家庭抛弃。婚后，两人的生活清苦窘迫，保罗不得已身兼数职，以应付二人开销。不久，怀孕的朱丽辞去了超市的工作，在一次挤公车时，被人撞倒受伤流产。保罗心急如火，四处借钱未果，无奈之下，抢了富婆的钱送往医院，到医院后得知父亲（井淼 饰）已结了帐，夫妻俩满眼无奈。之后，保罗赴国外留学，这期间，朱丽又有身孕，怎奈保罗一别数年不归，渐渐长大的孩子常问朱丽爸爸在哪儿。圣诞夜，朱丽在酒吧邂逅一酷似保罗的海员罗威（凌云 饰），萌生了让他假扮儿子父亲的念头...

In the sixties, love stories portrayed women as sentimentalists or sacrificial lambs. Later on, directors like Chu Yuan replaced these themes of sacrifice with abandonment. The Forbidden Past is a heart tugging, rare Chinese Christmas story about a bar girl (Ching Li) serving drinks to a man that looks like her husband from five years ago. She convinces him to fulfill her son's wishes of having the father he's never seen, show up for Christmas.