She is a poor mother at the bottom of society, blessed with natural beauty and born into a time of chaos. Her husband is frail, and all she wants is to survive and raise her son. To put food on the table, her husband sells her three times. At last, she is sold into the Marquis Xiahou's estate in Nansha, a vassal state of Great Yan. Her extraordinary dancing earns her adoption into the family, and she is sent to the capital in place of the marquis's daughter, Xia Yilan, to become a consort to the new emperor.
Empress Li is fiercely jealous and has already had two of the new emperor's consorts put to death in a single month. Entering the palace would mean certain death for Xia Yilan. As she travels to the capital, she plots her escape. Meanwhile, Empress Li, the King of Qiantang, the King of Wu, and Zhang Yidao, a bandit from Meishan, all send people to hunt down the marquis's daughter before she reaches the capital.
The journey to the capital is a gauntlet of blades and shadows, like being thrown into a poison-breeding pit. Xia Yilan suddenly realizes that danger lurks both inside and outside the palace. How could the imperial palace be any more perilous? She changes her mind and enters the palace as a consort, then rises to become empress.
As for ruling the palace, that tiny space spanning ten li, Xia Yilan smiles softly. Just watch as I stand alongside the emperor and build a glorious age for our realm.
