| Overview: | Beginning in 1997 with television footage of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region being sworn into office, we next see an appeal being made to the Chief Executive. The story then swiftly backtracks to 1985. We follow three people whose lives will intersect 12 years later: Yue-ling, Mr. Leung, and Ming. Yue-ling is a teenage girl suffering from loneliness and abuse; Mr. Leung is helping factory workers protest unfair working conditions, and Ming is a teenage boy caught up in a horrific crime.
Fast-forward to early 1997, and we discover that Yue-ling has grown into a young woman fascinated by the prose of a young man who turns out to be a prisoner. That prisoner is Ming. He has been "detained at Her Majesty's pleasure," held for years without a sentence under a provision of Colonial rule that, it is explained, was meant to give youthful offenders a bit of a break, a chance to correct themselves. Instead, it has been used to keep a number of young men behind bars for an indefinite period, never knowing when or if they can expect to be released. Yue-ling is touched by Ming's story, and seeks out the help of Mr. Leung, now a Councillor whose term of office will end effective with the handover. The race with time is on. Will these young men ever get out of prison?
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