The original story from which this film draws its inspiration is a four hundred-year-old classical Chinese opera called “The Peony Pavilion” (also known as “The Resurrection”). A metaphor on the closed nature of Chinese and Chinese society, this is a tale of an ocal’s daughter whose cloistered life within the family estate leaves her little knowledge of the outside world. Her maidservant tells her one day of a beautiful garden behind the estate. Though at first she tries to disregard this information, believing her duty is to think only of her studies, the girl finds herself thinking more about this place and eventually asks her maid to take her there.

The girl has never known of the garder’s existence even though it lies just behind her house and she finds herself happily ensconced in the tranquil beauty of the place. When she returns home, she sleeps and dreams that she is back in the pavilion of the garden being made love to by a young scholar she has never met before, either in the dream or real life.