Beijing, 1970s. The Cultural Revolution has driven most adults to the provinces leaving 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery known as "girls."
Based on the drama of the same name performed by the Shanghai Youth Repertory Troupe, the film tells the story of the underground CCP member Yu Haitao, who used the alias of Zhang Gongfu, and was active in the Shanghai economic circle as a businessman, fighting against KMT agents and crushing the enemy’s secret plans.
Two famous comedians from pre-Revolution days perform a series of sketches in a theatre for a group of Party cadres. The stage performances blend over into absurdist, self-contained fantasy episodes where the two comics allegorically parody Party propaganda and ideological orthodoxy.