In 1994, a girl called Wei participates in a student strike that fights for creative freedom. There she meets a girl and a boy,Qing and Guang, who are the leaders of the strike. They used to be lovers until Wei appears in their world. As the protest lasts several weeks, different voices rise between Qing and Guang. One day Qing kisses Wei and everything starts to change and be unstable. Their love-hate struggle mixed with homosexual romance undermines their trust and makes the movement fall apart…
In 1990, college student Ing, who accidently gets pregnant, returns to Lishan to spend the summer with her father. Ing notices the conflicts between her father and the farmers. She meets a young farmer Wen, and affection slowly grows between them. As summer ends, Ing leaves, and no one knows what the future will hold. To promote a new fertilizer, Ing's father gets a hot-air balloon, but hard as they try, it just can't fly.
In the remotest corner of southern Taiwan, the sinking fisherman´s village prepares for another carnival for the god. Sheng, a man reaching his 30s, returns in disguise as an established urban elite. As the carnival escalates, Sheng confronts his persistent father who farms oysters throughout his life and the childhood buddy who always envies his fragile “successfulness.”