After graduating in Fine Arts, Najiya has found work in an art publishing house, while she dedicates herself to deepening her creative obsession – painting pictures representing her people's totem, the sacred deer – and gradually becoming a renowned young artist. Despite enjoying her success, the atmosphere of her triumph enhances her feeling of loneliness and longing for her homeland, her country. Ignoring her friends' attempts to dissuade her and her lover's pleas, Najiya quits her job in the city to return to the distant mountains of Xing An Ling. But unexpectedly, her people have herded the deer out of the forest and gone to live in the city. In an empty forest, she can't find anything, not even herself.