After suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.

A young man, Jian, travels from Hong Kong to Liuzhou in China to visit his aging father who runs a spicy noodles shop with his caregiver and occasional noodle cook, Ah Ping. She fears that Jian will eventually take over the eatery but is unaware that he can only taste sweet, sour and bitter flavours but not hot spicy chili peppers, a crucial ingredient in his father’s signature dish. When Jian reconnects with his childhood friend, now a striking woman working at the local market, their passionate encounter reawakens his senses restoring his ability to taste hot peppers.

Soaring property prices drive dwellers to take every insane effort necessary to secure a cramped space, even if it means sharing the same roof with the dead.