An aged father and his younger, mentally challenged son have been working hard every day to keep the bathhouse running for a motley group of regular customers.

When his elder son, who left years ago to seek his fortune in the southern city of Shenzhen, abruptly returns one day, it once again puts under stress the long-broken father-son ties.

The bathhouse provides a variety of peripheral services, including haircut, massage, shaving, fire cupping, even old-style pedicure, to a motley group of regular customers, many of whom are retired old Beijingers.

After the bathhouse closes in the evening, Old Liu and Erming go for their daily jog around the neighbourhood, after which they engage in a contest to hold their breath in water as they bathe.

After a futile search, Daming returns home to his distressed father, who lashes out at him for not being able to take care of his younger brother.

Erming refuses to accept the reality of his father's death and insists on opening the bathhouse every day at the usual time.

He decides to leave Erming in a mental hospital for a couple of weeks whilst he goes back to Shenzhen to make preparations.

Shower was shot on a budget mostly in Beijing, with additional scenes in northern Shaanxi province (near Yan'an) and Tibet.

Having wrapped up in late May 1999, producer Peter Loehr held back the release of Shower due to poor domestic market in Mainland China.

A DVD featuring subtitles in English, Spanish and French was released on 12 December 2000 and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics in the United States.