Li An is a student and performing dancer at the ‘’Revive Simplicity’’ (Fuxing Jianyue) company. She teaches ballroom dancing for tourists at the Peace Hotel to make ends meet and lives with her roommate Xiao Du. Coming home in, she finds Xiao Du death. Was it suicide or murder? A strange poem is pinned to her chest. Three days later, the body of a colleague dancer is strangely displayed in the company's exercise space. Another poem is written on the mirror. Inspector Zhou Fu of the Shanghai Municipal Police now realizes both cases are murder. He requests the help of his friend, a forensic psychologist, Liu Dafeng, who fears more murders will follow. However, neither of them knows that the roots of these murders originate from Shanghai’s turbulent history. Generations of turmoil, war, triadic crimes, femicide, and the lack of respect for life, love, and bodily harm create strange bedfellows. A thrilling plot of human graving for power accelerates from the 1920s into Shanghai’s quest for progressive internationalization.