In this final collaboration between legendary producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory, China provides the backdrop for this drama of exile, longing and love's triumph over adversity, written by the prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.

The White Countess takes place in the glamorous, corrupt and boomtown atmosphere of '30s Shanghai that is soon to be swept away by advancing Japanese armies and civil war. At its center is the blind American diplomat Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) and Sofia Belinskaya (Natasha Richardson), a refuge Russian aristocrat making a living in a taxi dancehall and as an occasional prostitute. Jackson, aided by his mysterious Japanese friend, the spy Matsuda (Hiroyuki Sanada), opens a successful nightclub and installs the countess Sofia as its centerpiece.

In the spectacular mass exodus from the city, Sofia is abandoned by her in-laws, who secretly try to flee with Sofia's small daughter, Katya. Will mother and daughter be reunited and will Sofia and Jackson's love survive the turbulent events?