This film is based on three elements within a young boy’s childhood experiences: hunger, his father's imprisonment on false charges, and his sometimes-carefree youth. When he discovers that his mother is secretly trading "flesh for flesh" to feed her family, he refuses to eat the pork belly she cooks. The film takes place in the 1960s against the grim political backdrop of the "white terror" a time of political repression of Taiwanese civilians and dissenters and widespread poverty.