Fenyang 1999. On the cusp of the capitalist explosion in China, Shen Tao has two suitors Zhang, an aspiring entrepreneur, and his best friend Liangzi, who works in a coal mine. Shen Tao decides to marry Zhang -- a man with a future. Leaping 15 years forward, the couple's son Dollar is paying a visit to his now-estranged mother. Everyone and everything seems to have grown more distant in time and space. And then we leap further ahead in time, to even greater distances.