In Datong, an industrial city in northeastern China, Qiaoqiao makes a small living as a singer and nightclub dancer. When her lover Bin leaves the city without a word in search of a better life, she begins a years’ long search that spans the whole nation along its profound social transformations. 

Assembled from footage shot over a span of more than twenty years, Jia Zhangke crafts a boundless story of enduring but fragile love, anchored by the eternally captivating presence of Zhao Tao.