Zhou Yu is an artisan living in Sanming, an industrial town in north-western China. Twice a week, she takes the train to rural Chongyang to visit her lover, a shy, handsome poet named Chen Qing. Inspired by Zhou Yu's beauty, Chen has crafted a series of poems for her, which has only drawn her closer to this quiet, gentle man.
United by their passion, he finds in Zhou Yu the ultimate muse, while she believes Chen to be her ideal soul-mate. Zhou Yu returns to the countryside again and again to sate her restless heart but on one journey to see him, she encounters a friendly young veterinary surgeon, Dr Zhang Qiang, who becomes an eager suitor, younger and much more worldly than the sheltered Chen. Zhou Yu has begun to realise that despite their passion, Chen does not know what kind of future he wants with her.
Although Zhang's intentions are clear, Zhou Yu embraces him as a trusted friend, telling him of her last encounter with Chen who has decided to take a teaching post in Tibet, effectively putting their relationship on hold. But after Chen Qing leaves for Tibet, and like the train she continues to ride twice a week, Zhou Yu is inevitably drawn back to Chongyang to the empty library, her heart frozen as she tries to contemplate her betrayal.
In the mountains of Tibet, a young woman named Xiu arrives. She has fallen in love with Chen Qing through his poems, and has been pursuing him and watching Zhou Yu to understand the inspiration behind the poetry. Chen tells her that Zhou Yu is dead, killed in a bus accident on her way to Tibet. But Xiu isn't convinced – now, she is the one riding the trains in pursuit of her love, and she can see Zhou Yu riding with her.
This beautifully made film is a passionate tale of one woman's search for perfect love. A sensual evocation of distance and time, reality and imagination, where the only thing that's truly real is what's in one's heart.
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