At Beijings elite Beiqing University, the student body is divided: there are those who treat their education as a cold calculation for social status, and those whose dreams are crushed, causing them to drop out and vanish into the shadows of modern Chinese society.
On the verge of graduation, Shu Nien is torn between her dream of making a living through documentary filmmaking and the pressure of finding a "stable" career. Her inner conflict reaches a breaking point when her junior, Xu Lai, attempts suicide after a night of drinking together to drown their sorrows.
Confronted by the raw, brutal reality of Xu Lais suffering, Shu Nien becomes acutely aware of the deep-seated contradictions within their world. The incident awakens her to the "silent screams" of others who are being ignored by society. Determined to make a difference, Shu Nien resolves to capture these voices through her lens, hoping that by documenting the truth, she can finally spark a change.
