A young bar singer and two friends, evicted, rent rooms in Beijing from a retired singer, leading to generational conflicts until mutual understanding forms a bond.

When they are evicted from their apartment in a provincial city in Northern China, a young bar singer and her two male friends rent rooms from a retired opera singer in Peking. The free-spirited young people chafe against a myriad of rules from their controlling landlady. They retaliate by playing unkind practical jokes on the older woman, who pays them back in kind. Their contest of wills escalates, culminating in a violation of trust by the tenants, but eventually the generations learn from each other and a familial bond is formed between them.