Lynn lives with her grandparents in Meicheng, a small Hunanese city unsettled by an ongoing rape-murder investigation. With little structure to regulate her life outside of school, where she is bullied, Lynn begins smuggling and reselling confiscated mobile phones with her friend, which leads to encounters with the city’s seedier inhabitants.

14-year-old Honggui is forced to live with her uncle and aunt in the countryside. She is not wanted by them, nor was she wanted by her parents, who apparently intended to farm her out to family for two years so they could work in the city. Years pass. When she tries to make contact, her real mother is too busy to take her call.