Hong Kong’s Mong Kok in 1937: the smoke of war has yet to arrive, but undercurrents are already stirring. Su Shangyin, the only daughter of a Shanghai textile dynasty, is forced to seek refuge with distant relatives in Hong Kong after disaster strikes her family and both her parents die. From a young lady on Avenue Joffre to a nightclub singer in Mong Kok’s Flower Street, her refined, bookish air dazzles the world of nightlife. Yet she cannot escape the crushing weight of the times or the darkness in people’s hearts. A passionate romance with Liu Xiaxiang, a roguish man of the underworld, and a fated entanglement with Ling Hua, a socialite, ultimately drive her into the cold waters of Victoria Harbour. This is a story about how someone preserves a sense of poetry amid despair, and an allegory of how a city gives birth to new life amid chaos.
