This film is adapted from a famous French libertine novel, which has been adapted into different versions of movies, TV series, and stage plays. In the 1930s, under the guns of the Japanese army, the upper class of Shanghai was still lost in the carnival of luxury every day. Xie Yifan (played by Jang Dong-gun) is a famous playboy in the romantic world, and Mo Jieyu (played by Cecilia Cheung) is a wealthy widow who is charming but scheming. The two have an inseparable close relationship. Mo instigated Xie to seduce Beibei, a girl who was about to marry the rich businessman who abandoned her. Xie felt that it was not challenging enough and became interested in Du Fenyu (played by Zhang Ziyi), a pure widow from a famous family. Xie and Mo immediately started a gambling game with Du as bait. The content of the bet was that Xie got Du's body, and the prize was Mo's body that Xie dreamed of. Du resisted Xie's pursuit at the beginning, but later fell deeper and deeper, and Xie also found that he fell in love with his prey, all of which made Mo furious. When all morals and taboos are completely broken, the men and women in these games fall into the river of desire, sowing the seeds of tragedy...