Elsa (Liu Yifei), a French female student, falls in love with Ma Rong (Leon Lai), a silk researcher and shakuhachi master in Chengdu, and later develops feelings for Ma Rong's brother, tattoo artist Jianmin (Liu Ye) in Paris. The former finds a silkworm that meets his ideal - the night peacock, and the latter engraves the butterfly-like night peacock on Elsa's skin forever.