At midnight, seven people sit around a copper brazier filled with burning charcoal, telling stories.
Each brings a tale of something eerie they experienced firsthand: the Nine Nether Pawnshop, a palace maid wandering among the shadows on the Forbidden City walls, a floating coffin dredged from the Yellow River, ancestral tablets that move around an old house... But whenever someone finishes a story, the fire dims a little more.
The participants agree never to reveal their real names, but someone notices that the names of the dead keep appearing in the ashes that vanish each night.
When the ...th story ends, the copper brazier suddenly goes out.
The only newcomer, Chuxia, raises a flashlight and shines it into the darkness. Of the seven chairs where they had been sitting, only one person remains: him.
