In provincial China, factory worker Yu Dagang has just lost his job. While eating at a noodle stand, the owner shows him a young baby who's been left there by her mother. The baby bears a note offering a monthly salary to anyone willing to look after the child. Yu decides to take the job and calls up her mother, a young prostitute named Feng Yanli, right away. Over the next few months, Yu adapts well to his new responsibilities, and soon Feng has moved into his apartment, forming a makeshift family. But the trio is threatened by Side, a dying gangster who tries to kidnap their child.