In 1931, with the country in turmoil, Yan Zhaoyi, the young heir to a silk-trading family in Zhenjiang, refuses to obey his father and flee to London. After falling out with his family over his fervent desire to resist the Japanese, he transmigrates to 2011 when the ancestral Buddhist pendant he carries suddenly stirs. At the same moment, Jiang Yue, a young woman from Nanjing, argues with her parents, who insist she study science instead of pursuing her dream of archaeology. She resolutely runs away to Zhenjiang.
Two young people of the same age, separated by eighty years, meet by fate at the entrance to an old alley in Xijin Ferry, Zhenjiang. As wariness between strangers gives way to empathy, they share the moonlight over the Yangtze and confide in each other about the convictions no one else understands: Yan Zhaoyi carries the weight of his country and family in a time of chaos, while Jiang Yue holds fast to her passion in an era of peace.
Their brief time together is filled with warmth. At dawn, time tears Yan Zhaoyi away, sending him back to an age beset by turmoil. Their encounter across eighty years has nothing to do with staying together, yet becomes the most precious light in both their lives. The lingering warmth of the ancestral pendant and the traces of Jiang Yue's poems hint that this meeting is not the end: they are destined to meet again.
