This is the screen adaptation of the novel by Timothy Mo. It begins with a traditional Chinese wedding in one of the villages of the New Territories. Four years later, Lily and Chen emigrate to England. The film is about their marriage, and how their love becomes eroded by an alien culture and blackmail. Ian McEwan is the author of In Between the Sheets, Comfort of Strangers, Ploughman's Lunch and Child in Time. He has also written a number of plays for television.