During the reign of Emperor Renxuan of the Daning Dynasty, Su Qinghe, a peasant girl from Jiangnan, was designed by her stepmother Zhou to be sold into the palace as a maid because her father favored boys over girls. After entering the palace, she encounters the funny prince Li Zhaoyuan - the youngest son of Emperor Renxuan who appears to be a playboy but is actually secretly sharp. The two work together to deal with the three crises in the harem: the evil stepmother Zhou (who became the nanny of the Queen Mother through a relationship with a foreigner and continues to persecute Su Qinghe), the mistress Xiao Guifei (who is favored and domineering, and wants to eliminate Su Qinghe to avoid future troubles), and the concubine (who uses witchcraft to frame her in an attempt to subvert the imperial power). Su Qinghe solved the conspiracy with her intelligence and grew from a humble palace maid to a concubine who could control the situation; Li Zhaoyuan was healed by her and got out of the shadow of the early death of his biological mother in childhood. The two supported each other in the palace fight and finally overturned the injustice: Zhou family fell into law, Xiao Guifei lost power, the concubine was executed, Li Zhaoyuan succeeded to the throne, Su Qinghe became the queen, implemented reforms to change the culture of favoring boys over girls, and achieved a happy ending.
