In a Chinese village during the Qing Dynasty, a crippled man acts as a lawyer for the poor with the help of the trickster Monkey King, but his peaceful life is turned upside down when he comes into possession of a book that details atrocities committed by the government.

As a Chinese-American widower and professor of philosophy contemplates the life he has provided his two daughters, he recalls a traumatic memory from his youth as a delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant, riding through the dangerous streets of New York City.

A Japanese businessman reflects on his experience with Chinese people and longs to visit China.

In modern-day China, a man previously accused of being a pedophile sets out to meet and provide support for a man whose daughter has publicly accused him of being an adulterer.

Searching for a muse to inspire a novel he is attempting to write, an author in San Francisco finds his passions ignited by something much more sinister.

In 21st-century China, a journalist and a former dissident, once the best of friends, lead very different lives. When one goes to jail, the other confronts rampant corruption to find his friend.

In post-Cultural Revolution China, a Marxist philosophy professor must decide whether he should confess to a crime he did not commit.

Having sacrificed his dream job to financially support his marriage, a man realizes there is sexual tension between his wife and his friend. Ultimately, he makes tough decisions about both his friendship and his marriage.

In modern day Lanzhou, China, the author meets up with a zeppelin long-haul pilot who has agreed to take the author on his transpacific haul.

In the near future, a young man escapes civil unrest in Laos and becomes a journalist in America, where he must decide whether to write about important truths and risk getting fired, or conform and write meaningless click-bait stories.