A 1,000-year-old Peking Opera tale of greed and its consequences is intermingled with a tragi-comedy set in Beijing on New Year's Eve 1999. An ex-con and debt collector ('Baldy') handcuffs himself to an indebted poet (by chance, an old friend) to force him to pay up. Joined by the poet's girlfriend (who maintains a determined, erotic silence throughout), they spend a drunken night in the poet's home that gradually exposes the truth of their relationship and past. As the two men strive to express their passion, the poet's effete sentiment and ardor are gradually overwhelmed by Baldy's raw scorn for the pretense of love, a point driven home as he fornicates with his flute. The charged atmosphere (punctuated by three looming dogs) escalates to Baldy's confession of his attempt to murder his mother and then disintegrates as all three find themselves wretchedly doubting their values, words and poses, past and present.