In the 1994 post-martial law period in Taiwan, the students were in the midst of protest. Chi-wei, a female college student, joins the strike to fight for their freedom of expression. During the protest, she slowly becomes attracted to Ching, the girlfriend of the leader of the student strike.

In 1990, college student Ing, who accidently gets pregnant, returns to Lishan to spend the summer with her father. Ing notices the conflicts between her father and the farmers. She meets a young farmer Wen, and affection slowly grows between them. As summer ends, Ing leaves, and no one knows what the future will hold. To promote a new fertilizer, Ing's father gets a hot-air balloon, but hard as they try, it just can't fly.

Xiao Hong is a shy 29-year-old man who works in an aquarium fish store and lets his overprotective mother boss him around in all aspects of his life. His cousin decides to take him to a seedy hotel where Sister Lele oversees the prostitution business.

Soft, an escaped undocumented worker, clutches a woman's ID card in his hand. This woman is the goddess of his best friend, Chai, who yearns to meet her. To fulfill Chai's desire, Soft embarks on a journey, heading toward the location indicated on the ID card.

In the remotest corner of southern Taiwan, the sinking fisherman´s village prepares for another carnival for the god. Sheng, a man reaching his 30s, returns in disguise as an established urban elite. As the carnival escalates, Sheng confronts his persistent father who farms oysters throughout his life and the childhood buddy who always envies his fragile “successfulness.”

A bizarre hitman with a soft spot for animals and a taste for cowboy gear gets handed an outrageous assignment. A gambler and a jockey have cooked up a scheme: rig the race, push a sluggish long shot to a shocking win, and walk away with a fortune from the racetrack owner’s pocket. But the owner gets wise to the plan. Determined to shut it down before it starts, he brings in the killer to clean house. Now faced with a fat payday and a moral dilemma, the hitman stands at a crossroads — stick to the job, or help the poor sap escape the crosshairs? One horse sets off a chain reaction that lays bare the greed and humanity buried in every heart.

In 2006, Detective Chang leads a police investigation into a murder committed in a public marketplace. Chang discovers the victim's father has ties to several other families with dead or missing members, and a grim espionage case buried for 50 years in Taiwan's past. Meanwhile, the kidnapped Mr. Hsu is interrogated by a mysterious mastermind. As the truth emerges, the embers of history become a deadly wildfire.