Mao Dabing, an easygoing film buff, works delivering water bottles in Beijing. One evening after work, Dabing crashes into a pile of bricks in an alleyway while racing to the movie theater on his bike. As he's picking himself up, a young woman, Ling Ling, takes a brick and hits him on the head. He winds up in the hospital where he learns that Ling Ling is also being treated--in the psychiatric unit--for attacking him. When Dabing confronts Ling Ling, she asks him to go to her home to feed her fish. He does so and is amazed to discover that the woman's room is a virtual shrine to the movies, crammed with posters, stills and memorabilia. Her place turns out to be a shrine to the movies, and especially to one star, legendary '30s singer-actress Zhou Xuan. There he finds her diary, and begins reading about a life filled with a passion for the movies that they share, in more ways than one.