China. The last day of the year 1999 in the mining town of Fenyang. Two friends are vying for the attention of the beautiful Tao: Zhang has his own business, Lianzi is a miner. Tao hesitates but eventually chooses Zhang. The years pass, Tao gives birth to a son whom the father names Dollar. When the couple splits, Tao realizes that it would be better for the son to stay with his father. She returns home with enough money to help Lianzi, who is seriously ill. The years pass. It is 2025. The adult Dollar is studying in Australia, where he moved with his father. He no longer speaks Chinese and long ago lost contact with his mother, but one day he happens to hear a song that sounds familiar. Through its three characters, the film paints a clear, if somewhat didactic, picture of political, economic and social developments in China at the beginning of the new millennium. Today a famous director, Jia Zhangke was born in Fenyang, the setting for most of his films chronicling a changing world. Here, too, we can sense the filmmaker’s nostalgia for a time when people were connected by things other than money.