In 1930s China, Wang is The King of Masks, an aged street performer who practices the change-mask opera art of bian lian.

At an illegal child market, Wang buys what he believes to be an orphan boy to become his adopted grandson and apprentice.

Wang is falsely accused of kidnapping the boy, a rich family's child, and is thrown in jail.

The King of Masks is eventually freed, and he finally accepts the girl as his granddaughter and teaches her his art.

[citation needed] Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film 3 stars, calling it a film "of simplicity, beauty and surprising emotional power" that "benefits enormously from the beauty of the setting, the costumes and the customs".