Set between Shanghai and New York City in 2026, The Butterfly Agreement is a contemporary reimagining of the classic Chinese love story, The Butterfly Lovers（《梁祝》）. Zhu Yingtai, a Shanghai television host fleeing a future already chosen for her, arrives in New York with a fake university acceptance and an F-1 visa, where she forms an unlikely alliance with Liang Shanbo, a disgraced professor living out of his battered Honda. As their business pact develops into something deeper, they confront immigration pressure, academic scandal, financial desperation, performance, and the daily work of survival.