Conflicts and compromises between urban administrators and an aging fruit vendor who takes advantage of the public streets to do business in Wuhan, the largest city in central China. The bureau officers are steadfast in their duty to clean the streets, but still sympathetic towards the vendors who are being displaced. They meet his partner in Wang Tiancheng, an elderly and cantankerous fruit and clothing vendor, who is helped by his eldest son who lost a hand in a factory accident. The old man is unabashedly defiant, like a warrior without a sword against an army. He tears up the officers' citation papers, yells insults in their faces and even throws punches at them. They take the abuse of him with surprising patience and humor. But his bosses are adamant that he get the job done.