Forbidden Nights is set in the Red China of 1979. Robin Shou plays a Chinese radical, working on behalf of bringing political reform to his homeland. Melissa Gilbert costars as an American teacher who falls in love with Shou. The dramatic thrust of the story is Ms. Gilbert's willingness to put her own life on the line for Shou's ideals. This made-for-TV star-crossed romance was filmed in Hong Kong, seven years before it too would fall within the Mainland China orbit. Forbidden Nights was directed by Waris Hussein, the Indian-born craftsman responsible for such theatrical features as Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970) and The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972).