Butterfly Lovers

Zhu Yingtai leaves home for study in Hangzhou with her maid, Renxin, both in disguise as a man. On the way, she encounters the innocent Liang Shanbo, with whom she makes a sworn brother. During the three years of learning from Master Meng Jike, Shanbo never suspect of Yingtai’s gender although his servant, Shijiu, wonders about her eardrops’ mark.
A letter from home urges Yingtai’s return, so she pleads with Madame Meng to be her matchmaker. When Shanbo comes to see her off, Yingtai repeatedly hints at her love to him along the way but he fails to grasp it. Finally, Yingtai promises to match her sister with Shanbo and urges him to come to propose marriage. Unfortunately, Shanbo arrives three days later and Yingtai’s father has already accepted the marriage offer from Ma Wencai. After Yingtai tells Shanbo the whole story, the lovers’ hearts break.
Back home, Shanbo falls ill from sorrow and dies. On her wedding day, Yingtai goes to mourn for his death and kills herself for love by jumping into the tomb right after it opens upon her tears. The furious Wencai upturns the tomb and finds that Shanbo and Yingtai have already turned into a pair of butterflies. Finally, the lovers live happily away from this world.