In the backstage of the Cheng family opera house, the heroine’s mother delivers a breathtaking final performance of The Drunken Beauty to thunderous applause. Her greedy stepfather tries to offer her to Japanese occupiers for wealth, but she refuses to sing for them and is brutally murdered by him. The young heroine witnesses her mother’s tragic death.
Years later, the exceptionally gifted Cheng Tianci (the heroine) represents Great Xia on the international stage. Her powerful rendition of Mu Guiying Takes Command wins the highest honor. Returning home in glory, she finds her stepfather back to torment the opera troupe, humiliating her grandmother’s master and mocking that the Cheng opera legacy has no successor. He threatens to seize the theater—unaware the true inheritor has returned.
