Nogs struggling in the lowest echelons of society seek a way out. But does the gun in
their hand shoot bullets or seal their own fate? Vine, having long abandoned hopes
of social decency, stumbles into love again in middle-age. Should she even dare to
hope? Belle, a local political fixer, buys elections with piles of cash but can’t hold her
disintegrating family together. Veteran reporter Chien-ho returns home to find his
childhood town on the cusp of a divisive election. Are his writing skills enough to cool
his hometown’s hotheads and to find reconciliation with his father?
Set amidst a mayoral election, this work plumbs a complex landscape of local politics
as well as people’s everyday struggles and aspirations, the perspectives and passions
of women in politics, the volatility introduced into social relations by “political fixers”,
and the power and impotence of media figures. The narrative also explores the
vulnerability of each character to monetary enticements and the complex interplay of
personal fixations.