An emotional detective story spread over two continents and a half-century. Beneath the film's stunning and pulsing musical revelations burn the horror of war, and the lost souls extinguished from history.

An American naval officer falls in love with a Japanese geisha girl known as Butterfly and marries her, with no intention of ever taking her home to America.

During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. Leo is a police officer who sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers" organization. Leo ends up arresting Mei, only to have Jin break her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But...