In the late Ming dynasty, Venerable Dade, abbot of Qiulin Temple, accepted an invitation from County Magistrate Liu Zhenyuan to come to the county office and perform a ritual to ward off calamity and prolong the life of Liu's mother. During the ceremony, he met Fifth Madam Liu Ying'er, and his worldly desires stirred. Yet a monk and a laywoman were worlds apart. They seemed fated to meet, but never meant to be together. Dade's friend, Chen the Lame, was a righteous man with a gift for reading faces. He was arrested simply for criticizing county affairs, stirring up another worry in Magistrate Liu Zhenyuan's heart: he was nearly sixty, yet had no son. To have a child, he decided that on the first night of the month, Fifth Madam Liu Ying'er would spend the night at the Zhusheng Temple to pray for an heir and keep the incense burning. On that first night, Dade and Liu Ying'er finally met in secret. One forbidden affair began, and countless sins followed. Heaven's justice, the laws of the land, and human feeling became tangled together. Whoever is guilty can never escape retribution. Look, night has fallen, and the darkness grows deeper...
