The film was adapted from Mai Jia's 2007 novel, The Message (Chinese: 风声; pinyin: Fēngshēng), and was co-directed by Chen Kuo-fu and Gao Qunshu.

[2] April 26, 1940, former Nationalist vice president Wang Jingwei made peace with Japan and set up a Japanese-supported regime during World War II, a puppet government in Nanking.

Taketa (Huang Xiaoming), chief intelligence officer of the Japanese Imperial Army, believed that it was an action of an underground anti-Japan group and that there was a mole, nicknamed "Old Ghost" (aka The Phantom) inside the Wang government's Anti-Communist Command.

When it is apparent that the underground group knows its contents, he arrests the five personnel who saw the telegram, bringing them to the closely guarded fortress Qiu Castle for interrogation.

A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese espionage agent attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting their own identity.