Shu, a bachelor, is a worker in the village's motor-repair shop. The friends he grew up with have followed very different paths. When he gets together with his friends, Shu tends to stay silent, like a tree forgotten in the wilderness.
Due to the subsidence of the village, the evacuation of villagers to new apartments in the county town begins. Shu instead takes off for the provincial capital to look for a job. He works in the school and finds that the pupils remind him of his own childhood. He decides to go back to his hometown.
The worries and intuitions which have long flashed through Shu's mind start to make sense to him. He begins to make prophecies, and many of them come true. Suddenly Shu becomes a respected prophet, addressed by everyone as "Mr. Shu". -- Synopsis courtesy of Shanghai International Film Festival