Lin Wanzhao, a 26-year-old graduate student in folklore, investigates her family's curse that no woman lives past thirty and discovers that she is the sacrificial offering in a ghost marriage that has been going on for years. She tries to fight back, but as she gradually uncovers the truth, she realizes that her very existence is a terrible curse. She is not alive at all, but a "living corpse" fashioned through dark magic by her family to preserve their good fortune. Her awakening and resistance are precisely the final step needed to complete the ritual, ultimately dragging everyone she cherishes into the abyss.
