The film is set in China during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Tang dynasty. Li Yi, the Prince Guang, a relative of the emperor, has been sickly since childhood. His mother, Lady Zheng, commissions Yu Xiufeng, a craftsman from Mount Meicen (Mount Putuo), to create a porcelain figurine of Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) so that she can pray to the bodhisattva to bless her son with good health. On the day the figurine is completed, Yu Xiufeng and his grandson, Haisheng, discover a baby girl in a lotus pond. Yu Xiufeng adopts the baby girl as his granddaughter and names her Lianmei (Lotus Sister). The figurine is taken to Mount Wutai and enshrined in a Buddhist temple there.