The film captures the social impact of political change in China at the time.<ref name="University of Edinburgh"/> A semi-literate who was deprived of schooling during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Li Huiquan, is released from labor camp. He arrives back in his native Beijing to find that he has no family or prospects or friends, just his underworld contacts trying to drag him back into a life of crime.<ref name=Amazon.com></ref><ref name=IMDb></ref> His attempts to make good are continually thwarted. His street stall selling clothes puts him on the fringe of the black market, and he soon gets lured back into his old neighbourhood gangs. His disenchanted comrades include a nightclub chanteuse as well as an escaped convict.<ref name="Rotten Tomatoes"></ref> The film's lurking handheld camera visually presents realistic footage of a man destined for the past from which he left behind.<ref name="Asia Pacific Films"></ref>