In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves.
Lao Yang is not "a good father" in Chinese traditional way although he's already in his 60s. His wealth has been through ups and downs ferociously. His business went bankrupt years ago. Luckily, his three children are all grown up and have their own family. Lao Yang spends his days between taking care of his bedridden wife, keeping a mistress, collecting debts and gambling with mahjong. Conflicts between Lao Yang and his children escalate.
Based on real life events from the 1990s, a ruthless gang manages to pull off several high risk – high reward heists, meticulously planned out and executed over nearly a decade. When a police detective thinks he's figured out their pattern, the head of the gang starts to openly taunt him, resulting in a race to the ultimate showdown between cops and robbers.
