Cheng Do is the well-educated younger son of an unpleasant, miserly salt baron whose focus is on grooming him to be a scholar, ignoring his other hard-working elder son. Cheng's world is torn apart when his father and brother are assassinated. Grief stricken he sets out on a journey to avenge their deaths. He hooks up with a puppeteer and his wife who are masters of the art of tai chi: the only style that can defeat the killer.