Based on real life events, the film revolves around the heroic efforts of a team of firefighters as they attempt to deal with a fire that breaks out at an oil refinery in Dalian.
The plot spans nearly 30 years and tells the story of a poor boy from the northeast, "Xiao Bao", who follows his village's hairdresser, "Er Ge" (Sha Yi), to Shenzhen, a special zone. The two are forced to take care of the baby, and then they meet up with a cold-hearted young woman named Ma Lu (Ma Li).
A Macau photographed with elegant realism forms the backdrop to the life of Lina, a Chinese immigrant working both as a waitress in a restaurant and as a hostess in a bar in order to save money to join her mother and daughter in China. By chance she meets taxi driver Mada, also an immigrant from China. Both have a past they want to forget and love feels like it might be their last chance to avoid being alone. But as is always the case in a melodrama, the past isn't easily tamed.
