To free herself from her husband's insatiable sexual demands, middle-aged aristocrat Madame Wu (Yan Luo) presents him with a young concubine. Much to Madame Wu's dismay, however, her rebellious son falls for the courtesan, while Madame Wu finds herself increasingly attracted to the boy's tutor -- village priest Father Andre (Willem Dafoe). It all comes to a head with Japan's cataclysmic World War II invasion of China.