After volunteering as a blood donor, the HIV virus is found in 31-year-old Li Ziliang. He is immediately fired by his boss for fear of infection. Every time he walks on the street, he is surrounded by groups of people that stare at him. ‘One touch and you’re finished’, one of them thinks. ‘People with AIDS should be cursed. Only immoral people get AIDS’, another one comments. Nobody wants to sell anything to Li, because they do not want to touch the money that has passed through his hands. Only in distant Beijing can he walk around undisturbed. His wife is at her wit’s end, too, because she also lost all her friends. One day, she gets on her bicycle and never returns. She leaves Li behind with three children, who will not find anyone to take care of them after he has passed away.
