A series of severe crimes happen in Yangguan, an industrial town in northwest China. Chen Hanzhong, the detective on the case, commutes to the gobi, fallen villages, and desolate industrial landscapes with colleagues day after day. They get some clues, but more questions. As time passes, they realize that to solve the case is also to solve the mysteries in their lives. Suddenly, work and life, and memory and reality all begin to interweave.