The fourteenth year of Yongjing, the fifteenth year of peace in Xiangyang. In Xiangyang City, Yu Duoduo makes a living selling beef noodles, while the scholar Yu Dingxiang copies letters and poems to supplement the household income. Childhood sweethearts, they enjoy the simple happiness of ordinary people. Unexpectedly, a letter from home draws Yu Dingxiang into a conspiracy involving Xiangyang City's defenses and espionage, and his fate becomes unknown. The Northern Royal Court marches south. To protect her family, Yu Duoduo takes her husband's name and enlists. She serves as a scout, rescues her lord, and survives one brush with death after another. Yu Dingxiang passes the imperial exams, becomes a high-ranking local official, enters the imperial family, and nearly marries a princess before learning what happened between their elders fifteen years earlier. Yu Shiping defends Xiangyang, staking fifteen years of the Great Zhou's fortunes on the city. He offends the peace faction in the capital and is framed as a treacherous minister. His daughter's life takes many unfortunate turns, until a family retainer saves her by arranging a phoenix exchange. By imperial command, the married couple clears Yu Shiping's name, repairs the six gates, builds up the navy, and roots out corruption among officials. When Xiangyang enjoys another fifteen years of peace, Yu Duoduo and her husband turn their backs on wealth and status, hang up their official seals, and return to an ordinary home beneath the walls of Xiangyang City.
