Wu Li has returned to Hegang from far away Beijing and is ready to get an education to find a dignified job and get married to Jincai. But good intentions and amorous feelings are not enough on their own. Without work or a dowry, the families do not consent to the marriage. If even a genuine love story comes up against economic obstacles, little or nothing remains for the youngsters in a small town in the back of beyond. In Heilongjiang province, on the edge of the Siberian steppe, there is no trace of the Chinese economic miracle, if not in the tales of those who return, perhaps just to complete a passport application before leaving again for other destinations. Jinbao, Guoqing and the friends who have stayed behind plaster their walls with posters of Bruce Lee and Andy Lau, vainly hoping to create an identity as a gangster, something they consider more dignified than the job of a miner or a worker willing to risk their life for a few bucks. Money is the measure of every relationship and nothing changes over the course of the seasons, until the umpteenth tragedy occurs or there’s a party for a fresh departure.