Qiu Fu, the most renowned clown of Sichuan opera, has reached the netherworld. Welcomed by Ox-Head and Horse-Face, shepherds of the dead, he recounts his life with the ₃New-New₄ opera troupe before his turn at the Bridge of Forgetfulness. Starting in the 1920s, Qiu₂s tale melds with China₂s tumultuous century into the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Great Leap Forward, and other socio-political revolutions.