Loosely based on The Tale of Darkness, a traditional song of mourning, the film follows Wang Zhun, a director in search of inspiration for his new script, as he embarks on an unpredictable trek across China’s remote Shennongjia mountains in Hubei province with an urbane producer, Ding Hongmei; a young actor named Bai; and his loyal photographer, Du Chun. The journey delivers a relentless series of unexpected physical hardships and subtle emotional ebbs and flows on the protagonists.