A remote Tibetan monastery is secretly funded by an overseas benefactor. When the funding fails one year, leaving the monastery with insufficient money to survive, two monks are chosen to travel 3,500 kilometres overland from Tibet to Macau. Away from the sanctity and isolation of the monastery, they confront the realities of the world and modern-day China as they embark on a journey that will challenge their beliefs and the very principles by which they live.

Along the way, the two monks team up with a prostitute and a dog they rescue from a live animal food market. Together, they must overcome all manner of obstacles that threaten to end their journey.

Brittle is a suspenseful story of devotion tested by need, of a friendship stretched across thousands of kilometres, and of the fragile threads - faith, loyalty, and love - that hold a life together when everything else falls away.