Decades in the future, real beef has become incredibly rare, due to a recurring outbreak of bovine parasitic cancer. In Nanjing, China, a talented artist named Helena runs an illicit company called Splendid Beef Enterprises, where she designs and produces fake beef and sells it to restaurants. She set up her business after fleeing Hong Kong, where she was involved in designing an artificial heart for a transplant surgery using a "bioprinter" (a 3D printer for organ replicas). When the patient later died, Helena was wrongfully blamed and it became a crime punishable by death to make or supply substandard printed organs. Helena stole the bioprinter, changed her name, and fled to Nanjing. One day, an anonymous caller uses Helena's background to blackmail her into accepting a massive forgery order: 200 T-bone steaks in a month. Helena is forced to hire an assistant, Lily, in order to get the job done on time. She teaches Lily the basics of meat forgery, and they work tirelessly on the project, while the anonymous caller threatens to reveal her whereabouts to the family of the transplant victim. When Helena forgets to send a status update to the anonymous caller, he sends a man to beat her up. But Lily fights the man off, saving them both. Helena reveals the truth about her past to Lily, and Lily reveals that she used to work for a prominent organ printing company in Guangzhou, where she was routinely blackmailed. She encourages Helena to fight back against the anonymous caller. After some investigation, Helena and Lily discover that the anonymous caller is Dominic Cai Yongjing. They conclude that Mr. Cai opened a vertical farm to raise beef, and he was planning on serving the first T-bone steaks from his farm at his daughter's upcoming wedding. But when the cows developed bovine parasitic cancer, he decided to cover it up by asking Helena to make the forgery. Helena and Lily finish the project and set the T-bone steaks out to be delivered. They purposely add a picture of a happy cow to each printed steak, ensuring that the wedding guests will know it is fake. Helena and Lily send the steaks to Mr. Cai, then run away together.