During a troubled time in China in the late 1800s, the corrupt Empress Dowager and her favorite eunuch Li Hung Cheung decide to hold a Lion Dance Competition. But the Lion Dance (martial arts) schools see the competition as an opportunity to boost their strength, causing much chaos and fighting. Wong Fey Hong, the best martial artist in China, travels to Peking to visit his father, a lion-head manufacturer and is forced to defend his father's school against an aggressive rival. Wong manages this, but Yee, his fiancée, runs into an old Russian boyfriend who gives her a motion picture camera as a gift. The camera captures a plot by the Russian officer to assassinate Li Hung Cheung during the Lion Dance Competition. Wong enters the Competition to stop the attempted assassination.