Gouichi Takata is an aged Japanese father who has lost touch with his son Kenichi after leaving him for a remote fishing village. When years later he receives a sudden phone call from Kenichi's wife, he is crushed: his son has been hospitalized and is diagnosed with a terminal disease. Old, weary, but unusually determined, Goichi travels to Southern China where, as a final act of good will for his dying son, he hopes to film the epic Chinese opera song 'Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles' which his son loved so much.