Ten years after the massacre that wiped out the Xie family of the Northern Frontier, the sole survivor, Xie Jinglan, enters the imperial capital under the assumed name Shen Yan, posing as a poor scholar. At the Qionglin Banquet, a game of unfinished Go brings him together with Jiang Jinyue, the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Personnel. Gentle on the outside but strong within, she lowers her guard around him. He plans his moves carefully, but as he draws closer, he falls for her. When the clues to his revenge point to her family and his true identity begins to come to light, love and hatred become the sharpest blades of all. Half a jade pendant uncovers palace secrets, while an imperial edict of marriage binds the two together by force. From mutual suspicion to shattered trust, from protecting each other through life and death to standing side by side in desperate straits, they tear away layer upon layer of deception amid the whirlpool of power, finally exposing the shocking conspiracy behind the massacre. When the dust settles, the two, their worldly trappings cast aside, leave the imperial court behind and join hands to gaze upon the sunlit mountains and rivers.
