In China, religious positions have always been controlled very closely. In this lavishly photographed story, set in a Buddhist monastery during the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th centuries), the monastery is in turmoil, wondering who the government is going to appoint as its next abbot. A number of outside dignitaries have been invited for the announcement and enthronement of the next abbot, and the tensions in the monastery are only heightened when one of these guests steals a venerated sutra from the Mahayana canon of Buddhist scriptures.