Set in 9th-century China during the Tang Dynasty, a general's daughter (Qi Shu) who had been abducted as a child and trained by a nun in the martial arts, returns to her birthplace after thirteen years to kill the governor (Chen Chang) to whom she was once slated to marry. But first, she must confront her parents and her long-simmering repressed feelings in her struggle to decide whether to kill her former love or betray her orders as a righteous assassin.