Illegal Chinese immigrant Ying is dependent upon Gao, brutal leader of the Snakehead gang, who sends her onto the streets of Brixton selling bootleg DVDs and fenced accessories. When she fails to earn enough to pay her keep, he rapes her but, following a police raid on illegal immigrants, Ying flees. She finds sanctuary with Jamal, a kindly, divorced barber and stays with him in return for doing his cleaning. But Gao isn't going to stop.