AllMovie

A young Austrian woman follows her heart to China just prior to the Cultural Revolution in this romantic drama from director Hu Mei. Young Fanny Ebner's (Nina Proll) life is changed forever when she meets Chinese policeman Ma Yunlong (Wang Zhiwen), who is in Vienna for training with the city's police force. Yunlong and Fanny embark on a whirlwind romance that eventually prompts the young woman to return to China with her new love -- against the wishes of her parents, family, and friends. After arriving at their new home in China, the couple marries in a traditional Chinese service and they manage to enjoy a brief honeymoon-like bliss before China's cultural upheaval begins. Since Yunlong's allegiances were with the Chinese Nationalists and not the newly empowered Communists, the newlyweds are forced to go into hiding -- which proves to be in vain as the former policeman is apprehended shortly thereafter and sent to a prison camp. This development leaves Fanny isolated from all of her friends and family, as well as engaged in a struggle to survive in a land totally foreign to her.