Xiao-Lan, a typical problem child, and Xiao-Lin, a model student become friends, but their parents and school do not allow them to maintain their relationship. Xiao-Lin’s parents come to school asking the teacher, “If you put a good apple with a rotten one, who would buy it?” Xiao-Lan runs away from home after Xiao-Lin commits suicide, but society continues to make demands. So the marriage with Chen Mingdao, a monk candidate, cannot end well, either. A once pure soul is encroached upon after breaking through the boundaries that let one refuse all kinds of social abuses like drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Xiao-Lan returns to the night streets and kills the pimp who tricked her. When she gets out of jail, she starts a new life with a gambler, but falls deeper and deeper into a hell of depravity… One day she decides to quit drugs to start a new life with Xiao-Mao, a friend from jail, but she is betrayed and eventually her short life ends after only 28 years.
 Based on a true story, Xiao-Lan’s life is stifled. She is a so-called bad woman, but she cannot even ignore a beggar. Mingdao’s parting words, that no one can change you but yourself, seem rather unconvincing when institutions like school or family turn a cold shoulder and society hands her a pair of handcuffs while demanding her to ‘come to her senses.’ She was like a cactus left in the desert to flower. (Bae Doo-Rye)