Summer, 1974. On her way back from family visit in the Kunming province, young female intellectual Xing-yu (Shu Qi) meets the man she won't forget for the rest of her life: young rebellious intellectual Si Mong (Liu Hua). Xing Yu's childhood friend and lover Yuan Ding Guo (Fang Bin) is the leader of her platoon. At the busy Red Post Town market, Yuan and his friends get into a bloody fight with Si Mong. and sustain injury. Xing Yu subsequently gets caught between the two hostile groups. Hoping to negotiate a truce, Xing Yu approaches Si Mong only to be drawn further into a forbidden and passionate relationship. Divinity, however, decides to intervene. It seems the social upheaval of the time, not Yuan, has control over Xing Yu's destiny. Pouring rain eventually puts out the fiery passion that livens up the little hut. When violence finally subsides, one's heart also dies.