Synopsis

The year is 1995. Mangya, a northwestern border town of China has become a ghost town since the once-prosperous mine and border trades shut down. The town has become an island, isolated from the outside world.

There is only one police station with three police officers and one gun. XIA Ran, a retired soldier has spent over a decade here. There’s a saying that he’s the last survivor of the battlefield but he never talk about his story.

Sandstorms hit the town once a year, and a catastrophic, once-in-decade sandstorm is forecasted for this year. The storm looms on the horizon; the final transport out of town has long left. In the dead of night, five corpses are tossed into the oil tank in the town’s sole gas station. The piercing silence is interrupted by a pack of uninvited guests.

However, what frightens XIA Ran more than the murders is that the gas station’s tank has been emptied and the town’s phone line has been severed. As the sandstorm closes in on Mangya, he realizes that everyone in town has been trapped. Even worse, it seems that some of the town people have their own secrets too…