正德皇帝(张震)与其御妹无双(王菲)均厌倦了皇宫的单调生活,想偷偷溜出宫去看看外面的世界。无双女扮男装先行一步来到江南的梅龙镇,结识在此开店的阿龙(梁朝伟)阿凤(赵薇)兄妹后被阿龙喜欢上,她也爱上了阿龙。 无双身份暴露被带回皇宫时,正德皇帝微服来到梅龙镇,并在阿凤遭遇歹徒挑衅时拔刀相助,两人结识后经过一段日子相处产生感情。因无法忍受对阿龙的思念,无双再次从宫里逃回梅龙镇,四人在店中相会,并在误会尽除后私定终生,不料遭到太后的阻拦。In Ming Dynasty China, two pairs of siblings are destined for each other. But fate throws countless obstacles in the path of their happiness. One pair is high-born: the young Emperor and his sister Wushuang, both confined to the Imperial Palace and very much under the thumb of their mother, the Empress Dowager. The other pair is decidedly lowborn: the wanderer Li Yilong (known as King Bully for the way he terrorized the town of Meilong in his youth) and his sister Phoenix, who still runs a restaurant in Meilong. When both the young Emperor and his sister Wushuang contrive to leave the Palace and head south, they meet the loves of their lives in Meilong. But Wushuang has disguised herself as a man, and the Emperor is incognito. Numerous confusions, complications and misunderstandings ensue: genders and gender-roles are reversed, class differences prove hard to negotiate and identities and egos block the promptings of desire. It takes the interventions of a goddess to get everyone back on the right road. But it may be already too late to heal the wounds of disappointment and separation.