三十多岁的洪涛经营着一个小饭馆，在粗糙的外表下他有一颗敏感的心。他有点孤僻，又多疑，总是感觉到身边有威胁，甚至到了风声鹤唳、草木皆兵的地步。别人不经意的举动，都有可能引起他的恐慌。他的印象中，和他作为画家的父亲关系非常不好，小时侯，他觉得正是因为父亲经常虐待母亲，导致了母亲的自杀身亡，而母亲死后父亲更是变本加厉，放浪形骸，对儿子也尽不到一个父亲的责任，有一天，酒醉的父亲把他拉进小黑屋，弱小而又撕裂痛苦挣扎的声音，让无助的洪涛永远刺激在脑海里。从此后他变得孤独无语，长大成人的洪涛逃离了父亲，开了家饭馆维持生计。只有他自己知道自己的秘密为什么要离家出走。但是他始终觉得有一双眼睛在暗中注视着自己，而且是从背面，这将给他带来巨大的危险……

China. Mid 90's. HONG Tao, thirty years old, moved from the countryside to Beijing where he works in a fancy restaurant. He lives with a strange secret since the cultural revolution. Back then, his father was a famous Mao's portrait painter and he was obsessed by the leader's representation. He started tattooing Mao's portraits on human skins. HONG Tao, oppressed by this heavy inheritance, wants to hide it from the world. But a new wave of unscrupulous antique collectors will do anything to get their hands on them.