In Shanghai in 1934, the declining talented girl Lin Wanqing and the radical scholar Shen Yichen met in troubled times. She expresses her feelings with paintings, and he expresses his ambitions with poems. The two secretly make a lifelong promise under the locust tree, but are blocked by the wealthy businessman Chen Shichang and feudal ethics. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Shen Yichen went into exile in Nanyang and survived almost death by using his pen as a gun. Wanqing stayed on an isolated island, conveying information through paintings and composing poems in prison to encourage her compatriots. In 1945, the two met again in the ruins after the war. Shen Yichen was in a trance, but he could only hold on to the ancient book that made them love each other. When she said goodbye in 1949, Wanqing sent her husband north to participate in the founding of the People's Republic of China and took the risk to rescue cultural classics. In 1980, the dying Wanqing added the final touch to the posthumous manuscript after returning from overseas - a locust tree reborn from the scorched earth, its roots entwined with an endless cultural context.
