The movie tells of a romantic and tragic love story between two men. The story is set in Beijing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Chen Handong buys the virginity of Lan Yu, a poor architecture student from northern China desperately in need of money. However, Lan Yu falls in love with Chen, but Chen Handong wants sex instead of love. After a failed marriage and a long prison term, Chen finally knows that Lan Yu is his soul mate. But, Lan Yu dies in an accident. Even though the film received a great deal of criticism, it won several awards at various movie festivals throughout Hong Kong and Taiwan, including Liu Ye's win for Best Actor at Taiwan's 38th Golden Horse Awards.