Taking place around 500 years after the events of the first film but before the second installment, the new fantasy romance White Snake: Afloat follows the journey of Bai Niangzi, or Madam Bai, a white snake demon, who has taken on the form of a beautiful woman.

Accompanied by the green snake demon, Xiaoqing, the protagonist travels to Lin'an in hopes of reuniting with Xu Xian, her beloved. Now becoming a skilled polymath in medicine and patient care, Xu once again falls in love with Bai and gets married but their peaceful life is soon disrupted by Fahai, a powerful and stubborn Buddhist monk who is adamant in his belief that humans and demons should not coexist.

Spanning 133 minutes, the film has a crew of almost 1,000 people — consisting of 300 from Light Chaser Animation and 700 recruited from other companies.