After being robbed and attacked one night in Kuala Lumpur, Hsiao-kang, a homeless Chinese man, is rescued and taken in by some Bangladeshi workers. One of them, Rawang, lets him sleep beside him on an old mattress that he has found on the street. Later, when Chyi, a waitress at a coffee-shop, meets Hsiao-kang, she is filled with lustful desire. As Hsiao-kang slowly recovers, he finds himself caught between Rawang and Chyi — as well as Chyi's female boss. Meanwhile, a heavy haze descends on the city. It is so humid that it stinks of the perspiration of its multi-ethnic people. These men and women and the old mattress, lose their way in the haze but find one another… This film is different in texture, mood and feel from Tsai Ming-liang's previous films. It features a cast of multi-cultural and multilingual characters and makes the crowded, neon-lit streets of Kuala Lumpur come vividly alive. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone is among the New Crowned Hope series of films commissioned as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Mozart in 2006.