东北工业末期，主人公陈胜利因意外伤害罪入狱十年，刑满释放后时过境迁中的陈胜利通过开办一个幼儿园而化解十年的恩怨，并与张歆艺饰演的女主角演绎了一场既热烈又遗憾的爱情。

　　影片讲述了上个世纪九十年代东北，一段充满风格化色彩的黑道大哥如何重新面对人生挑战的故事。十年时光，一座城市已近乎枯竭。胜利想洗掉背后的关公纹身。曾经的俱乐部里留下一个烂摊子，一所经营不善只剩下几个孩子的私人幼儿园，园长为逃债跑路。胜利在城里仅剩的歌舞厅与小美相遇，发生了一段离奇的故事。

Chen Shengli, 40, is a dapper ex-con with a spine of steel, who used to hang out with some very bad people. But he’s determined to reform. He returns to the old theatre he owns, where he discovers that a kindergarten now ensconced there can’t pay the rent. The local cops suggest he should run it himself. Which he undertakes to do, with the assistance of Sun Xiaomei, a gorgeous, tough-as-nails nurse who moonlights as a dancer in a seedy local ballroom, which is where they first met. Kindergarten seems to soften Shengli (who still harbours a scarily violent streak), and something like a romance with Xiaomei kindles. But those shady former associates have long-held grudges and won’t let Shengli go…