In a world divided into the "rust belt" on the polluted surface and the "dome" of the clean floating city, painter Chen An is working hard to create the painting "Light of Life" in order to win the qualification to enter the dome and reunite with his lover Li Guo who suffers from "cell decay disease". He and Li Guo could only rely on unstable data streams to communicate, and he used the symbol of their love - a miraculous plant "Glass Fern" that can emit light in the ruins - as the core of the painting.
However, a data storm in the communication turned Li Guo's gentle voice into a cold mechanical echo, creating a crack in his perfect fantasy. In order to pay for his lover's high treatment costs, he took the risk of working for a black marketeer, but was ruthlessly teased that the person he loved might just be a "digital ghost" who was about to "upload his memory", and everything he saw had already been distorted.
His sister pointedly pointed out that he was living in a self-constructed illusion. The ridicule from the outside world and the doubts from his relatives pushed Chen An to the brink of collapse. In the end, after being repeatedly tortured by the fear of the truth and childhood trauma, he returned to the canvas and used a false and dazzling bright color to forcibly install a "heart" on the painting, choosing to use self-deception to make the final struggle.
