Tang Qingliu is a young woman living alone in straitened circumstances. By chance she sees a job notice and applies to become private companion to the wealthy elderly widow Mrs. Liu Xunyi, accompanying the frail, eccentric old lady aboard the luxury cruise ship The Unruly Wind on a Mediterranean voyage lasting several weeks. On board, amid silks and perfumes, power, status, and money circulate between deck and ballroom: the dashing Yu Qiushen moves among wealthy women, the shipowner's son Ren Shaodong is willing to start from the bottom, and Qingliu is merely the quiet nobody who pours tea and pushes the wheelchair. Mrs. Liu had planned a whirlwind marriage to Yu Qiushen but comes to her senses at the last moment and cancels the wedding. Soon afterward Mrs. Liu dies on board and unexpectedly leaves a large fortune to Qingliu. The sudden turn from poverty to wealth brings Qingliu no freedom: she gradually learns to order servants about, cannot walk without a driver, will not tolerate anyone crossing her; her speech, her habits, even her obsessions come to resemble more and more those of the dead old lady. Like Mrs. Liu, she too pursues the Yu Qiushen who once hunted wealthy women. Those around her cannot help asking: where has the gentle, considerate girl gone? Did money remake her, or has another person's soul come to life in her body? Yi Shu sets her stage on a ship and, in a cool, almost cold-blooded style, writes of drifting identity and of human nature alienated by wealth, leaving an ending that comes full circle and admits no answer.
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