Su Jiantang, a young paper-cutting artist from Ansai in northern Shaanxi, learned from her grandmother as a child how to cut “spirit-passing talismans.” These paper cutouts, marked with strange patterns, could be pasted on a door to let the souls of departed loved ones return home briefly. She always thought they were simply a keepsake passed down by the older generation, until one night, dark red beads of blood seeped from the paper on her door, and the whispers of the dead became desperate cries for help.
To uncover the truth, she meets Lu Yanhe, who can see the traces left by spirits. Following the clues in the paper cutouts, the two discover that the “spirit-passing talismans” her grandmother left behind are not symbols of reunion at all, but “soul-guiding talismans” that can bind spirits. More terrifying still, someone is using paper-cutting artists across northern Shaanxi to gather the energy of the dead, hoping to open the “Gate to the Underworld” at an ancient Yellow River crossing and let the power of the underworld consume the world of the living.
From the cave dwellings of Ansai to the ancient walls of Yulin, from an abandoned opera stage on the Loess Plateau to an ancient sacrificial altar beneath the Yellow River, Su Jiantang must struggle to protect those around her, master the power of paper cutting, and stop the gate from opening. As the truth draws closer, she discovers that her bloodline has long been bound to the “spirit-passing talismans” and the Gate to the Underworld.
