Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead womans identity.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but cant escape the curse that afflicts themtheir eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays.

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all shes a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind.