In the early years of the Republic of China, Suzhou was hazy and misty, old and new trends of thought were intertwined, and the shackles of family status were still tight.
Su Wunong, an orphan girl whose scholarly talent has declined, is gentle and tenacious. She spends her days with her grandmother, hoping for pure and true love. Gu Qingshen, the eldest grandson of a noble family in the north, was ordered to go south. He was responsible for the family's important tasks of developing business and establishing marriages, but his actions were all tied up by worldly responsibilities.
A chance encounter on a stone bridge made the two fall in love at first sight. Su Wunong's pure talent cured his involuntary loss, and Gu Qingshen's tenderness and cherishment also warmed her loneliness and helplessness.
But this relationship was in a desperate situation from the beginning: Gu Qingshen had a marriage contract with a powerful and aristocratic family that had been finalized by his family, and his trip to the south concealed his own involuntary difficulties. This fatal secret was a huge rift between the two.
Mrs. Gu has a strong sense of family status, and she beats the mandarin ducks with a strong stick, forcing them to give up because of their right to inherit power and position; the childhood sweetheart Lin Ruoyan was jealous and resentful, fabricating letters, spreading rumors, fabricating false pregnancy, and creating misunderstandings and alienations step by step.
In order to protect Su Wunong, Gu Qingshen endured the pain and deliberately distanced herself and pretended to compromise. The well-intentioned concealment eventually turned into a bitter betrayal, causing Su Wunong to leave heartbroken.
In a desperate situation, Su Wunong broke away from the shackles of love, wrote a book to make a living, established a book club, and completed self-transformation and growth. Gu Qingshen suddenly wakes up, secretly breaks away from the family's control, collects evidence, and fights against the conspiracy.
When all the lies and conspiracies were exposed, Gu Qingshen cut off her bonds, gave up part of her family fortune in exchange for freedom, and went to Suzhou to find her.
In troubled times, with many shackles on their family background, the two experienced parting, hurt and redemption, and will eventually overcome the hardships of the world and choose a belated but unswerving two-way love.
