It was a minor hit at the box office with a sexually-explicit R(A) (in short as Restricted (Artistic)) rating, male full-frontal nudity and its nostalgic evocation of a seedy but colourful aspect of Singaporean culture,[1] prior to the redevelopment of Bugis Street into a modern shopping district and the eradication of transvestite activities in the area.
She seems thoroughly content for a time to possess a naïve, romanticised view of the rambunctious goings-on at the hotel where she witnesses "the sad departure of an American gentleman" from the home-cum-workplace of "his Chinese girl".
The guest is actually a presently-sober but angry American sailor who has belatedly discovered that the Singaporean Chinese prostitute he picked up in Bugis Street and spent a drunken night with happens to be a trans woman.
Before long, the new employee Lien finds out that many of the long-term lodgers of the budget establishment, whose room rental rate is S$3, whether it be for an hour or the entire day and night, are trans women.
Although her first reaction to seeing someone with breasts and a penis is one of revulsion which causes her to contemplate fleeing the neighbourhood, she instead listens to and heeds the cajoling and advice of Lola, the trans hotel resident who has treated her well from the start of her stint.