Ma Linsheng, a minor bureaucrat who is simultaneously spineless, violent and passionate, is very inconsistent in the way he treats his son, Ma Che. a sensitive and open young teenager. President of the Worker's Committee, Linsheng conceals his romantic dreams under a veneer of macho insensitivity. One day, Che makes a mistake at school. His father writes a self-criticism for him; but the boy, who doesn't accept this image of himself, refuses to sign it. Humiliated, Linsheng hits him. From then on, their already stormy relationship becomes a battle of wills.