For family reasons, Zhong Bufan, a young man from a small town, flees his home to try to reach Beijing. On the way, he crosses paths with Ren Jiqing, an old man suffering from Alzheimer's disease who mistakes him for his son.
Six years after the abduction of his daughter, a man is hired to kill the author of a fantasy novel, but the world of the novel seems to intersect with reality.