On his moped, Yang Ba travels every day from the grubby apartment he shares with his wife and son to the ramshackle tyre workshop where he tries to earn a living for his family. But having a child of student age is expensive and Yang’s finances are put under even more pressure when the municipality plans to demolish his neighbourhood. His distress puts him in touch with Li Daguo, who is looking for a kidney for his desperately ill sister.
At the beginning of the 20th century, China is in a state of crisis. The country is split into warring factions, the citizens are starving, and recent political reforms have made matters worse, not better. The ruling Qing Dynasty, led by a seven-year-old emperor, and his ruthless mother, Empress Dowager Longyu is completely out of touch after 250 years of unquestioned power. Huang Xing has recently returned from Japan, where he has studied the art of modern warfare. When he finds his country falling apart, he feels he has no choice but to pick up the sword.
In a small northern Chinese city in 1997, Judge Tian privately struggles with the loss of his daughter, killed by a stolen car in a hit-and-run accident. On the bench he encounters Qiuwu, a mechanic accused of stealing two cars. Perhaps influenced by his emotional state, the outwardly impassive judge imposes an almost-obsolete criminal law on Qiuwu that sentences him to death for his crime. Desperate to mitigate his sentence, Qiuwu agrees to donate his kidney to a rich businessman dying of a terminal illness, hoping at the very least that his impoverished family may profit from his demise.
The story revolves around the work and life of traffic police Du Jun with his wife, sister, mother, and ex-girlfriend, as well as the sudden changes that occurred within one day.
Wu Hongyan is a female bailiff in a regional court in West China dealing with women awaiting execution—more often than not, sentenced for crimes of passion. Every weekend, without much luck, she looks for love at the Good Luck Matchmaking dance, until she meets the husband of one of her prisoners.
