“I can restore any ancient painting and uncover secrets sealed away for a hundred years, but every painting I restore takes a year off my life.”
Shen Linlang possesses the uncanny art of “entering paintings.” She can step into the worlds inside ancient paintings and glimpse truths buried by time. The last “Bone Painter” of the Shen family, she hides away in a small town in Jiangnan, scraping by as an ordinary art restorer.
Then one day, the Prince of Jin's household sends her a damaged painting, Fishing Alone on a Cold River. Hidden behind the scroll is the real reason the previous dynasty fell, as well as the truth behind the extermination of the Shen family.
The cold, aloof painter Gu Yanzhi is assigned to keep watch on her. On the surface, he is a retainer of the Prince of Jin; in truth, he is an informant planted by the court. He discovers clues in the painting that could topple the current dynasty, but as he gets closer to the truth, he forms an attachment to Shen Linlang that he should never have had.
The mastermind lays a series of deadly traps: The Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe drives its viewers mad, while a painting of the Goddess of the Luo River can control people's minds. Then the mysterious organization Ink Pavilion emerges from the shadows. The “painting demons” it keeps can kill people inside paintings without a trace.
When the final trump card is revealed, Shen Linlang learns the truth: she is not the only survivor of the Shen family, and the fate she has been painting all along is her own, rewritten.
The painter enters the painting; the viewer has already become one.
