Both a heartbreaking coming-of-age tale and a quiet revolution in film style from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien, Dust in the Wind follows Wan (Wang Chien-wen), a studious teenager from a small mining town, who moves to Taipei with his girlfriend Huen (Xin Shufen), where they make new friends, obtain tedious employment, and pledge to get married upon Wan's return from compulsory military service—but as both discover, life's seeming certainties are always less than certain.