Elsa (Crystal Liu Yifei) is a musician who spends her time between France and China. In the western city of Chengdu, she meets Ma Rong (Leon Lai) who is an expert player of the Shakuhachi flute and owns a silkworm factory. She soon becomes both fascinated by silkworms - living beings that have to be sacrificed so that precious silk may be extracted - and infatuated with him. But she also meets Lin (Yu Shaoqun), a young opera singer who's in love with her to the point of following her around, breaking into her room and trying on her high-heels. But the film unfolds in non-linear fashion, with the other half of the scenes taking place later in Paris, where she learns she's pregnant (we don't know whom from yet), and meets Ma Rong's younger brother Ma Jianmin (Liu Ye), a tattoo artist who marvels at her skin and offers to adorn her back with a tattoo of a night peacock, a beautiful but rare and short-lived butterfly. Soon, Elsa and Jianmin are in love.