When it is time for the Chinese gaokao, the entire country comes to a standstill. For nearly ten million high school students, this two-day national college entrance exam will determine where and if they get to study. It is not uncommon for the fates of entire families to hinge on the results. Like so many others, Nian has been single-mindedly preparing for the exam, at the exclusion of everything else and all alone. A classmate has committed suicide and she has become the target of relentless bullying. Meanwhile, fate brings her together with small-time criminal Bei and the two of them seal a pact. Derek Kwok-cheung Tsang's intense melodramatic thriller paints a bleak picture of an oppressive society, in the guise of a gripping fairy-tale love story.