Guerrilla member Ting Siu-yuen works as a playwright and Lee, the leader of an opera troupe. They conceal their identities in the troupe in order to gather military intelligence. Yuen gradually falls in love with the lead actress Mui Law-heung. Ting is unsettled to learn that County Chief Fong covets Mui. He sneaks into Fong's residence and is astounded by the sight of his old lover Pak Kuen, now Fong's wife. Fong colludes with the military chief in conducting vicious schemes. With Kuen's help, Yuen is able to get the intelligence. But as Heung is not an insider, she reports to the Governor about the illicit relationship between Yuen and Kuen. Kuen backs Yuen to eliminate the conspirators and bring about the union of Yuen and Heung.

David Bono is a hitman hired to target Orshanabi Nazzar, a high-ranking priest-bureaucrat in a temple corporation in the fictional city of Babylonia (Brussels-based). The corporation has invented a way to avoid death by recording people's lives. While gathering information and preparing for the job, David meets Ellie, with whom they slept together. However, Ellie is a member of a cult called Children of Ishtar, and David's job would interrupt their life-recording ceremony. Facing an obsessive dilemma, David tries to find a way to do his mission without killing Ellie. First, he tries to convince Ellie not to attend the ceremony, and then he hires a local crook to kidnap her while he does the job. After the successful job, Ellie frees herself from the kidnapper, discovers the truth, and leaves for Akkadia. Meanwhile, David calls to receive the rest of his payment but gets ambushed by the contractor.