Since 1996 film director Zhao Liang has been tracking the lives of petitioners who come to Beijing to visit its Complaints Office, and who find themselves stuck there for years on end, waiting to air grievances against local abuses of justice. Peasants thrown off their land, workers from factories which have gone into liquidation, small homeowners who have seen their houses demolished but received no compensation..., all types of cases are represented. Obliged to wait in the city, without much hope of winning redress, complainants find themselves living in the now-demolished ‘Petition Village’, a shanty town in which poverty reigns. Despite their living conditions, the interviewees generally state their determination to stay and see their case through.