A-Mao spends his days exploring with his little sister and his buddy A-Bao. When they are hungry, there are sweet potatoes and snails to eat, and sometimes they can eat some of the pork belly that his mother gets as a gift. His father cannot find work and is depressed, often drinking. Apart from washing people's clothes, A-Mao's mother prostitutes herself in exchange for pork to feed her family. A-Mao hears his parents quarrelling and he understands where the pork belly comes from. He starts to detest his mother and refuses to eat the pork belly that he once liked so much.
Two years post heart transplant, Ah Xun remains unable to shake off the gloom cast over his renewed life. First, there is a house fire; then, an unprecedented pandemic breaks out. Retreating to his grandfather’s home, Ah Xun finds himself persistently haunted by a string of unfortunate events. He is faced with an ex lover’s return, an encounter with the mixed-race sibling neighbours, the harrowing news of his mother’s cancer, his sister’s nervous breakdown, a friend’s drug issues, and now, the news of his grandfather testing positive for the new disease.
On the day of the 7th-seven, Lin Sang came to Zhiyan's house to condole. In front of the mourning hall, Zhiyan lit the cigarette in his mouth with a match. One afternoon, Zhiyan's father hurried to school. All he saw was his father nodding his head in front of him. Zhiyan, who went home after his father, saw Zhan Chen at the school gate, with his father saying, "Why can't you just like girls?"
In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.