A story set in nineteenth-century China and focusing on the life-long friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid social norms imposed on women.

A world-renowned spiritual leader arrives in the Asian nation of Purma to give a teaching to the faithful. Accompanying him is a retinue of monks and attendants, including his personal bodyguard, Deva, a beautiful Eurasian girl wi...