This novel centers on the anti-corruption reforms at the Eastern Drama Academy (EDA). After taking office as the new dean, Lu Wei confronts corruption within the academy and the casting industry's unspoken rules. Working alongside upright colleagues such as Song Yu, she launches a series of crackdowns: investigating unlicensed training institutions, scrutinizing teachers who falsified their credentials, including Liu Zhenbang, who forged a degree and plagiarized academic work, and publicly denouncing the infamous casting director Cui Zhenghao. Above all, she is determined to protect the students' rights.
Lu Wei's decisive actions threaten the interests of many, bringing pressure from superiors, a media witch hunt, and internal resistance. She begins to waver and proposes a compromise: to be strategic and proceed step by step. This clashes with Song Yu's uncompromising principles and radical stance, and the two go from comrades fighting side by side to drifting toward a complete break.
At its heart, the novel portrays the struggle between educational ideals and the lure of profit, and the clash between idealism and realism. It exposes the tangled interests behind the scenes at universities and in the drama industry, while showing how Lu Wei and others struggle to uphold justice and push for reform in the face of darkness. In the end, the corrupt are brought to account, and the EDA gradually leaves the chaos behind and begins anew.
