Shun Li works in a textile factory near Rome, slowly paying off the broker that brought her from China to Italy, while saving money so she can bring her young son to join her. She is suddenly transferred to work as a bartender at a pub in a small island town in the Venetian Lagoon. The pub is the hangout for the local fishermen, including Bepi, a handsome old Slav immigrant nicknamed “The Poet.” A tender, delicate friendship grows between Shun Li and Bepi. But gossip soon threatens their innocent relationship and the bond that had once transcended two very different, yet not at all distant cultures and they part ways. However, like the ocean, they are drawn back together again.