An unnamed Chinese journalist sets out from Beijing for the central city of Chengdu, where he will interview the minor actress Xiu Xi. His magazine's publisher, who was a classmate of his in journalism school, has given him money with which to pay her manager for the discussion. Beforehand, however, he decides to look for his friend Huang, whom he and the publisher both knew from university. Huang was more promising than either, but he was blacklisted years earlier for producing a documentary which was unfavorable to the party. Without giving the manager his money, the journalist has a cursory, uninteresting interview with the drugged-out Xiu Xi. To forget the ordeal for a few hours, he calls Huang, only to find out that he has been arrested. The State Security officer Hu greets him at the squalid, inhumane jail, and a quick bribe gains him access to Huang. The police have caught him with drugs, and, according to Hu, he will either face the death penalty or a hellish "mental health facility." The journalist and Huang have another conversation after the former slips Hu the money meant for Xiu Xi's manager, which makes the second half of their interview quite awkward. Surprisingly, the starlet agrees to speak without the bribe, after which the two spend a night together. Before the journalist leaves Chengdu, Huang tells him during one final meeting that he will never come back. He only realizes what his friend meant weeks later—Huang, a provincial newspaper reports, has killed himself in a "mental health facility."