The film focuses on the suffering of Chinese who were imprisoned in a forced labor camp called Jiabiangou in the Gobi Desert in winter 1960 under Mao Zedong on the grounds that they were "rightist elements". The film tells of the harsh life of these men, who coped with physical exhaustion, extreme cold, starvation and death on a daily basis.

Li Li, intelligent young woman is working in a mill Xian'an. The company knows the difficulties. Her husband, who worked in the same company, was among the first laid off and has launched a small business (fish). They have a little boy, Bing Bing. Tired, Li Li will visit the hospital. The verdict: acute leukemia. The bone marrow is financially out of reach. Rest chemotherapy less effective but require her husband to sell the family home. In addition, Li Li needs a little freedom to live a little for herself and get answers before ... She goes to Beijing to visit the one she was in love ten years ago, and who was not accepted by her parents.

An undertaker who sells “ghost wives” to bereaved families wanting companions for their unwed, departed relatives resolves to take his own posthumous bride when he discovers that he has a terminal illness — but complications arise when he strikes up a relationship with the young sister of his prospective, already deceased mate.