"Peking, winter 1948." Encircled by Mao's Commuinst armies, Nationalist warlord Fu Tsoyi seeks the solution to saving Peking in his Taoist concubine's lessons in calligraphy and passion. Chief Inspector Bei wrestles with a string of brutal courtesan murders, slowly realizing with horror that the solution to the murders is tied to saving his beloved Peking, and China's emergence into the modern world.