Set in 1960, and based on a ture incident weighing heavily on Yang's own youth, the film primarily focuses on the life on Xiao Si, a high school student whose civil servant father fled to Taipei in the wake of 1949's civil uprisings. He is clearly yearning for a stronger sense of belonging, and as a result join s a youth gang, much to the detriment of his life at home and at school. In time, he falls for Ming, a flirtatious girl with domestic troubles of her own; this ill-fated couple's circle of friends also includes Honey, an exiled gang leader, Xiao Ma, and Cat, a younger boy obsessed with Elvis Presley...