In the late autumn of 1996, a state-owned machinery factory closes down. Eighteen-year-old Lin Yue and her laid-off father, Lin Jianguo, open a copperware repair shop in the courtyard behind their dilapidated residential compound, relying on an ancestral brass caliper and Lin Yue's expert metalworking skills. Starting with repairs to a neighbor's copper spoon, Lin Yue goes on to recreate the long-lost art of white copper engraving. She apprentices herself to an old craftsman and painstakingly hones her carving skills, remaining devoted to traditional craftsmanship amid the conflict between machine mass production and handmade heritage. In the end, her copper sculpture, 'A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix,' earns widespread recognition. She also passes this endangered craft down to the next generation, ensuring that the sound of a blade carving copper will continue to ring out through changing times.