It starts with a young couple in roughly mid-century China purchasing their dream house, a secluded building in the countryside near where an ancient temple stood. Decades ago marauding bandit factions fought over the site - cue flashback of thundering horses, fire, steel and (relatively) graphic violence. Back in the present husband and wife couldn't be happier with the place, only he has yet to conclude his affairs back in the big city, leaving her (Yu) largely by herself until he can move in.

One night a stranger arrives in the garden (Duan Yihong, The Message, Desires of the Heart), And when the young wife serves him tea, he tells her a story which purports to be the truth about what happened fifty years before; about the bandit leader (Yao Lu, Confucius, One Foot off the Ground), His younger brother (also Duan Yihong) and the mysterious girl (also Yu Feihong) he kidnapped.