In this story the Jade Emperor had a daughter named Zhi'nü. Everyday she descended to Earth with the aid of a magical robe to bathe in a stream. One day, a lowly cowherd named Niu Lang spotted Zhi'nü. He fell instantly in love with her and stole her magic robe, leaving her unable to escape back to Heaven. When Zhi'nü emerged from the water, Niu Lang grabbed her and carried her back to his home.

Despite the abduction, Zhi'nü eventually fell in love with Niu Lang and married him. However, as time passed, she grew homesick and began to miss her father. One day, she came across a box containing the magic robe that her husband had hidden. She decided to visit her father back in Heaven.

When she got to Heaven, the Jade Emperor, was still angry over the way his daughter was abducted, so summoned a river to flow across the sky (the Milky Way), which Zhi'nü was unable to cross over to return to her husband.

However, Zhi'nü still loved Niu Lang very much and was beside herself with grief, so the Jade Emperor finally took pity on her, and allowed her to meet Niu Lang once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month, on a bridge over the river.

In some stories the bridge is made of birds. So in this adaptation, although I have not literally made the bridge of birds, I have alluded to this fact by having birds rise from the bridge’s balustrade.