During the Xuanhe period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianjing Alum Tower reached its peak and became a place where literati and dignitaries gathered. The novel takes the main building of the Alum Tower "Bai Alum Tower" as the axis, and shows the prosperity and crisis in the late Northern Song Dynasty through the intertwined fates of the three protagonists.
The story begins in the Lantern Festival of the third year of Xuanhe, when Fanlou held the annual "Jinmingchi Poetry Meeting". When Liu Qingci was sorting out his old papers, he discovered that half of the "Partridge Sky" left by his father contained a hidden mystery; while Shen Yanzhou was playing the new composition "Preface to the Colorful Clothes", he recognized that a certain dignitary present was the accomplice who framed his family; Zhao Yuanjing noticed at the poetry meeting that several poems that seemed to praise saints were alluding to the shortcomings of Hua Shi Gang. The three began to cooperate secretly for their own purposes. Using Fanlou as their base, they gradually uncovered a huge whirlpool involving party struggles in the court, the civil unrest in the southeast, and palace secrets...
