The film shows the story of Helen Snow in China. After the Xi'an incident of 1936, Helen Snow, the wife of Edgar Snow and also an American journalist, comes back to to Xi'an. With her bravery, wisdom and help of friends, Helen escapes from the surveillance of the Kuomintang Nationalist Party government and manages to be one of the only western journalists to travel to Yan'an, in the northwest of China, and report on the Communist Party and Red Army activities.