Richter Di has his colleague and friend Lo as a guest, who persuades him to visit a brothel in the administrative district of the strictly Confucian judge. When a headless corpse is discovered there, Di unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a macabre murder case. The investigations in the heart of the red-light district force Di to visit this area regularly - much to the dismay of his three wives. They are determined to emancipate themselves in the process. Following the trail of an ancient and terrible revenge, Frédéric Lenormand takes us into the underworld of colorful imperial China.