Shen Youran, an inheritor of Suzhou's intangible cultural heritage, returns to China with her internationally award-winning double-sided embroidery of Li Shimin. But after a speedboat accident on Taihu Lake, she and her embroidery plunge into the imperial court of the prosperous Tang Dynasty in the year 753. When she wakes, she has become Shen Mingzhu, a junior maid in the Bureau of Palace Attire. Her embroidered portrait, created using more than fifty modern techniques, is hailed as a divine feat and draws the attention of the emperor.
A top graduate of the China Academy of Art, she uses her skill in anatomical drawing to revolutionize Tang embroidery, creating portraits with lifelike depth and lighting. The Crown Princess, Lady Wu, recognizes her talent at a glance. “I want a future empress who can stand beside my son and survey the realm,” she says, arranging Shen Mingzhu's marriage to the stern, tightly controlled Prince of Guangping, Li Yu. On their wedding night, Shen predicts the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, turning the political couple into allies bound by life and death.
As Consort Cui plots against her, Yang Guozhong grows wary of her, and An Lushan sharpens his knives, this transmigrator with modern management skills and mastery of intangible cultural heritage is no longer just an embroiderer in the palace. She opens an embroidery workshop on the prince's estate to shelter displaced people, and uses the principles of a field hospital to treat wounded soldiers. She embroiders a map of the Guanzhong region inside the imperial robe and uses her double-sided embroidery to uncover the rebel army's deployment. From a palace maid pulled from the water to crown princess, she uses needle as pen and silk as ink, weaving a vision of a renewed golden age amid the blood and flames of Chang'an.
This is both the story of a talented woman's struggle to survive and the legend of a guardian of civilization. When the tide of history cannot be stopped, she chooses to use her skills to lessen the scars of war and her modern wisdom to help Li Yu, the future Emperor Daizong of Tang, put down the An Lushan Rebellion. A double-sided embroidered work spanning a thousand years: on one side, the grandeur of the prosperous Tang; on the other, modern compassion. And she is the stitch connecting two eras.
