On 1974, after years traveling around the world, Chinese writer San Mao settles down in the Spanish Sahara dessert. From the naked dunes she writes with a unique poetic perspective about life values, Chinese traditions, love with a western man and the freedoms of living where everything is completely different.

After her Spanish husband José fatally drowns in the Ocean in 1979 a devastated San Mao returns to China where her book The Stories of the Sahara has made her a celebrity. She starts giving classes at University, writes movie scripts and songs and attends public ceremonies where she gives speeches. Suddenly, at 48 years of age, when San Mao is at the peak of her career she hangs from the ceiling of a Taiwanese bathroom using a pair of silk stockings.

In the years of China’s opening to the world, her books about unrestricted love and the search of freedom influenced two generations of Chinese who wanted to take off from the strict Maoist China. The Stories of the Sahara became a modern classic read by millions of Chinese that were thirsty of dreams and hope. Today, 19 years after her death, San Mao still remains in the heart of many Chinese that continue struggling for freedom.