An imperial guard searches for the truth behind a conspiracy that framed him and his partners. The proof of his innocence lies with a wanted woman named Bei Zhai... but will she reveal what she knows? In this intense prequel to BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES, the only thing he can truly trust is his sword.

”A grand drama about love and self-sacrifice in the shadow of politically conservative China, on a search for its new identity after the Mao regime.” (From the 2007 Stockholm Film Festival catalogue.)

In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.