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.

Two women who live very different lives decide to exchange homes. Ai Lin (Vicky Yu) is poor while Wen Di (Cenzi Xu) is wealthy. But when they are both dumped by their boyfriends on the same day, they accidentally meet each other.

In the mountains of Guizhou, quarry owner Yu goes to inform a woman, Maizi, that her husband is in a coma after a quarry accident. But Yu is attracted to the sensual, hardheaded Maizi, and concocts a story to make her think she is indebted to him. The entanglements that follow evoke some of the painful impacts of China's modernization.