Spring Subway is a stylistic film that plays with chronological conventions and flashbacks, and with characters that often break the fourth wall to directly address the audience.

Xiaohui, who works at a designing firm, tentatively begins a flirtatious relationship with one of her customers, Lao Hu, a coffee-shop owner (played by director Zhang Yang).

Jianbin, meanwhile, has recently been laid off, though he keeps it a secret from his wife by dressing for work every morning, hiding his briefcase in a public bathroom and riding the Beijing metro for most of the day.

Another relationship also begins in the subway between Da Ming (Tu Qiang), a young man, and a photo-development salesgirl, Tian Ai (Gao Yuanyuan).

When Tian Ai finally finds and confronts him, he is too ashamed to speak but manages to communicate to her his cell phone number as the train pulls away.

Unable to pay the rent, and quickly running out of money, he also becomes aware that his wife may be having an affair, though Xiaohui keeps her relationship with Lao Hu strictly platonic.

Jianbin, however, tells his wife that his "work" has decided to send him to France for training, and he begins to contemplate leaving Xiaohui while he visits the blinded schoolteacher after learning about her from Wang Yao.

As a result, it is, as one critic suggests, an example of the "ambitious independent Chinese film" that avoids major state-owned studios but nevertheless retains a significant amount of both international and domestic popularity.