Based on real events, The Children of the Silk Road is a sweeping but intimate story set against war-torn China in the 1930's. The film centres on a young English journalist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an American nurse (Radha Mitchell) and the leader of a Chinese partisan group (Chow Yun Fat) who meet in desperate and unexpected circumstances. Together they rescue sixty orphaned children, leading them on an extraordinary journey across hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain, through snow-covered mountains and unforgiving desert. Along the way they discover the true meaning of love, responsibility and courage.