Fourteen years (from 1987 to 2001) in the life of Yu Hong (Lei Hao), a soulful girl who leaves the provinces, goes to university in Beijing, and carries on a passionate affair with a handsome student, Zhou Wei (Guo Xiaodong), and many other men.
Men in hard hats are the only eyewitnesses when Cai Guo-Qiang lights his massive gunpowder portrait of the founding director of Ghent's contemporary art museum where this event takes place.