Set in 1911, 1996 and 2005, and featuring the same two actors in the leading roles, three stories of desire, ambition, deceit and communication: in 1966 – "A Time for Love" – a soldier searches for a young woman he met one afternoon playing pool; "A Time for Freedom", set in a bordello in 1911, revolves around a singer's longing to escape her surroundings; in 2005 in Taipei, "A Time for Youth" dramatizes a triangle in which a singer has an affair with a photographer while her partner suffers.