Working family man and self-described movie-geek Li is thrown into a battle of wits with the law after his daughter accidentally kills, and his wife hurriedly buries, a fellow student in self-defence. The dead boy's father is an ambitious politician, and his mother is La Wen, a steely eyed, morally corrupt police chief. Utilising his encyclopedic knowledge of crime cinema, Li concocts a complicated alibi, but for La Wen, the crime is personal, and she smells a coverup.