As China's economy booms, so do its corporations, but none are as successful as the Bashful Goose Snack Company. Founded by Papa Hui, the company is a national treasure, as is his inspiration and beloved pet: the goose. Papa Hui's daughter, Kelly, isn't quite as adored, but she has a new and exciting post in her dad's company: head of the corporate responsibility department. There she is tasked with helping solve the obesity problem plaguing the country's children.

Kelly founds a "fat camp," where a series of gruesome accidents take place. While Kelly fears for her job, the government views the project as a success — the province is no longer the nation's leader in childhood obesity. Kelly returns to the city where she meets hair tycoon Wang Xilai, and we are introduced to the grotesque life of a modern day Gatsby.

When Papa Hui is brutally murdered, chaos ensues. Wang Xilai's muse Lulu flees to a hipster idyll, and she is soon joined at the oasis for millionaires by an insane Wang and desperate Kelly. Out of the absurdist satirical tradition of Mo Yan comes a hard-hitting yet whimsical portrayal of China's new "tycoon culture."