Butterfly Lovers

Chu Ying-toi  leaves home for study in Hangzhou with her maid, Yan Sum, both in disguise as a man. On the way, she encounters the innocent Leung San-pak, with whom she makes a sworn brother. During the three years of learning from Master Mang Kai-or, San-pak never suspect of Ying-toi’s gender although his servant, Si Kau, wonders about her eardrops’ mark.

A letter from home urges Ying-toi’s return, so she pleads with Madame Mang to be her matchmaker. When San-pak comes to see her off, Ying-toi repeatedly hints at her love to him along the way but he fails to grasp it. Finally, Ying-toi promises to match her sister with San-pak and urges him to come to propose marriage. Deceived by Ma Man-choi, San-pak and Si Kau go after the wrong way. San-pak arrives three days late and Ying-toi’s father has already accepted the marriage offer from Ma Man-choi. After Ying-toi tells San-pak the whole story, the lovers’ hearts break.

Back home, San-pak sinks deep in sorrow and becomes grievously ill. Si Kau rushed to Ying-toi’s home to beg for a prescription.

On her wedding day, Ying-toi 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 Man-choi upturns the tomb and finds that San-pak and Ying-toi have already turned into a pair of butterflies. Finally, the lovers live happily away from this world.