Loosely based on true events (see Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu), the film concerns René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons), a French people diplomat assigned to Beijing, China, in the 1960s. He becomes infatuated with a Peking opera performer, Song Liling (John Lone), who Espionage on him for the Government of the People's Republic of China. Their affair lasts for 20 years, with Gallimard all the while apparently unaware (or willfully ignorant) of the fact that in Peking opera, ''Dan (Chinese opera)'' roles are traditionally performed by men.