Lavish historical action film telling the story of a trio of warriors in the era of the Qing Dynasty - General Ma Xinyi (Jet Li), Cao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Zhang Wen-Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) - who make a pact of brotherhood to one another vowing that anyone who harms one of the brothers will be killed. When the country is plunged into chaos and political upheaval following the Taiping Rebellion, the three blood brothers must struggle to maintain their loyalty as war rages around them.