Shu An Wang An is an aimless young woman who flees from the police with her criminal boyfriend Da Shun Yu An-Shun after their gang’s apartment hideout is raided, injuring her leg when she jumps from a balcony. An unemployed photographer Qiang [Shao-Chun Ma] captures Shun’s arrest, and also catches Shu watching the events unfold. What begins as a tense escape spirals into a tangled web of obsession, power, and blurred lines between reality and art.
Zhou Yufang [Cora Miao] is a woman grappling with depression after a miscarriage three years prior, trying to write a novel about a couple facing marital troubles. Her personal turmoil unfolds alongside her husband Li Lizhong [Lee Lichun], whose position as section chief at the hospital where he works comes under pressure as the old chief dies, leaving three men—Li, his longtime friend and colleague Jing, and a third man—vying for the spot. Li quietly attempts to maneuver the situation by making Jing appear guilty for a crime the former chief committed, prompting Jing to resign in indignation.
Shen, Zhou’s former boss at a newspaper, rehires her, and their professional relationship blossoms into something more intimate as he shows a genuine interest in her work. The growing affair adds another layer of complexity to Zhou’s life and to the fragile balance she tries to maintain between her career and her personal pain.
Qiang’s girlfriend, enraged by the pictures of Shu that Qiang has hung in the apartment, attempts to take her own life while Qiang is out photographing passersby. In the meantime, Shu, still dealing with the consequences of her leg injury, starts playing a dangerous game of pranks—calling the gang’s apartment and other neighbors, including Li—until Zhou answers the line and Shu asks her to meet at the apartment for “something to be settled.” Shu’s mother, however, interrupts and prevents Zhou from going.
Zhou goes to the apartment and encounters Qiang, triggering a collision of their worlds: Zhou disappears for several days and returns to her own space, choosing to leave Li behind due to the strain of their distance and Li’s seeming casualness about her suffering. A healed Shu resumes life with the gang and ventures into the club scene, where she seduces and robs a man. She returns to the gang’s apartment and discovers Qiang has created a collage of photographs on his wall that, in a way, forms an image of her. He admits that his obsession has grown as he envisions his future and asks her to be with him when he returns from draft.
Shu roams back to the world she left behind, stealing and pawning Qiang’s camera to buy a cheaper one, and leaves with Da Shun after a tense confrontation. After spending some time with his wealthy family, Qiang receives a draft notice and reconciles with his girlfriend, hoping for a fresh start.
Zhou’s novel wins an award, and Qiang sees her photo in the paper. His girlfriend notes that the story is about a man whose wife discovers he is cheating on her, and so he kills her and himself—a stark, tragic refrain that resonates with the surrounding turmoil. Believing Shu’s call has triggered Zhou’s suspicions about Li’s own possible infidelity, someone close to the circle contacts Li with photos of Shu and Shun, escalating the tension to a breaking point. Li begs Zhou to take him back, tries to pressure her, and is eventually passed over for promotion. The director’s secretary claims the director is unavailable, and Li glimpses him in the window of his office, heightening the sense that something elusive is at stake.
Li drinks with his police chief friend Gu, and in a desperate moment steals Gu’s gun. He goes on to kill the hospital director before heading to Shen’s apartment, shooting Shen and sparing Zhou. Li then wanders the streets until he encounters Shu, who has been seducing and extorting men with Shun’s help. He agrees to follow Shu to a hotel as police close in, but Shu, wary of his unstable behavior, pulls a knife and a brutal struggle erupts, leaving blood splattered on the wall.
Gu awakens to the horrifying realization that Li has shot himself, while Zhou wakes with Shen and vomits, her world collapsing around her. The ending remains deliberately ambiguous: it is unclear whether Shen’s shooting was a dream, Li’s action, or if Zhou’s vomiting signals a pregnancy, leaving the audience with a haunting sense of possibility and unresolved tension.
