In Shanghai in 1926, Chinese and Western cultures collided, with warlords fighting and commercial undercurrents surging. Su Wanqing, an embroiderer from Jiangnan, went to Shanghai alone with her family's "Tong embroidery" skills in order to find her missing embroidery master. However, she accidentally got involved in a competition surrounding the "ancient embroidery map" - this map not only hides the pinnacle of embroidery skills, but also records the secrets of warlords smuggling cultural relics.
Relying on her unique embroidery skills of "identifying objects with embroidery and reading hearts with threads", she dealt with foreign comprador forces, warlord forces and underground organizations, but she did not get acquainted with Lu Jingyuan, a young marshal from Beiyang who was ordered to track down the smuggling of cultural relics. The two went from testing each other to fighting side by side. Su Wanqing used embroidery as a code to convey information and used embroidery repair to conceal the truth of cultural relics. Lu Jingyuan supported her in a world of guardianship skills in troubled times.
When the justice of the country and personal emotions face a choice, when traditional skills encounter the impact of modern civilization, can they hold on to the ancient embroidery map and protect the roots of Jiangnan embroidery? Amid the neon lights and flames of war in Shanghai, a story that combines the inheritance of skills and affection in troubled times is slowly unfolding.
