In the twenty-fourth year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty, Chang’an appears prosperous on the surface, but dark currents run beneath it. Pei Mingyuan, a director in the Ministry of Revenue’s finance bureau, discovers irregularities in the imperial treasury’s accounts. His secret investigation brings him a death sentence.
After his father is murdered, Pei Yan is forced to grow up from a carefree boy. He takes up his father’s mission to uncover the truth and discovers that the mystery of his own origins is tied to a palace coup twenty years earlier.
While fleeing, Pei Yan meets Xie Yaoqing, a musician with a mysterious identity. She is in fact a descendant of Li Jiancheng, the Hidden Crown Prince. The two join forces to pursue a common goal, though each keeps their own secrets.
As his investigation deepens, Pei Yan discovers that his father’s death is connected to the current chancellor, Li Linfu. The case also implicates Crown Prince Li Heng and Consort Wu Huifei in a struggle over the succession, as well as a mysterious organization called the Golden Scale Society.
Pei Yan ultimately exposes the Golden Scale Society’s plot to use the Hidden Crown Prince’s treasure from twenty years earlier to overthrow the Tang Dynasty. But he discovers that both he and Xie Yaoqing are merely pawns in a much larger game.
