Ruby, a young Scottish writer, moves to Shanghai to write her first novel. Picking up a new best friend and boyfriend pretty quickly, she thinks that her life couldn't be better. Until she finds herself inexorably drawn to Shanghai's seedy underbelly, that is. After loosing her job, there seems to be only one way to finance her escape from Shanghai... Shanghai Passenger weaves a retelling of the ancient story of Zhuangzi's Dream of the Butterfly with a coming-of-age story with satirical bite.