At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

Amanda Schull
as Elizabeth Mackey

Chi Cao
as Li Cunxin - adult

Chengwu Guo
as Li Cunxin - teenage

Wen Bin Huang
as Li Cunxin - boy

Joan Chen
as Niang

Bruce Greenwood
as Ben Stevenson

Kyle MacLachlan
as Charles Foster

Jack Thompson
as US Federal Judge

Camilla Vergotis
as Mary McKendry

Madeleine Eastoe
as Lori