Su Jiantang, a young paper-cutting artist from Ansai, northern Shaanxi Province, learned to cut "Tongyin Talisman" from her grandmother since she was a child. This kind of paper-cutting with strange patterns can be pasted on the door to allow the souls of deceased relatives to return home temporarily. She always thought it was a thought passed down from the elders, until late one night, dark red blood beads suddenly oozed from the paper-cut on the door, and the whispers of the dead turned into a sad cry for help.
In order to find out the truth, she met Lu Yanhe, who could see the tracks of dead souls. The two followed the paper-cut clues, only to discover that the "tongyin talisman" left by their grandmother was not a reunion talisman at all, but a "soul-attracting talisman" that could bind the souls of the dead. What's even more frightening is that some people are using paper-cutting artists from all over northern Shaanxi to collect the energy of dead souls, trying to open the "gate to the underworld" at the ancient ferry of the Yellow River, allowing the power of the underworld to engulf the human world.
From the Ansai cave dwellings to the ancient city walls of Yulin, from the abandoned stage on the Loess Plateau to the ancient altar at the bottom of the Yellow River, Su Jiantang must struggle between protecting the people around him, controlling the power of paper-cutting, and preventing the world gate from opening. And as the truth approached, she discovered that her bloodline had long been tied to the "Yin Talisman" and the gate to the underworld.
