Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution, שn inmate who escapes from a labor camp arrives in a town with a traveling cinema. A young woman plans to steal the reels of the propaganda film projected by the film owner, only to find that the prisoner is also interested in the said film, and for the most personal reasons. The tension between the two is the base for Zhang Yimou's most personal film to date. Zhang's work always shifts between breathtaking spectacular cinema and smaller dramas. In One Second, he serves a love letter to cinema, operating as a human and moving drama.