1990s rural China. A canceled traffic ticket changes everything. When checkpoint policeman Yao Sichen voids a fine for truck driver Yang Zhaowei, this bureaucratic mishap somehow entangles him in a missing truck case. Yang vanishes. His daughter Yang Ge flees as a murder suspect. And Yao must prove his innocence while investigating Maniao River Village's Ruyi Restaurant—where travelers check in but don't check out. The roadside eatery's proprietors are serial killers who rob and murder passing drivers. As the restaurant's grisly business thrives and suspicion tightens around him, a simple act of leniency spirals into a nightmare where paperwork meets bloodwork. Zhang Yimou's former editor Li Yongyi debuts with this self-described "absurd comedy wearing crime clothing"—Coen brothers mayhem with Chinese characteristics.