The story begins on a rainy day in early autumn of 1936. In order to raise briquettes for the students for the winter, Chen Yutong had no choice but to go to the largest pawn shop in Shanghai and wanted to pawn the white hosta left by his mother. By chance, he met Di Junyan who came to investigate the underground vault. Di Junyan saw the extraordinary quality of the hairpin at a glance and casually offered a sky-high price, but Chen Yutong declined. Her neither humbleness nor arrogance left a different impression on Di Junyan than other women.
Fate brings the two together again. In order to restore an important rare book collected by his family, Chen Yutong was introduced to Di Mansion. It turns out that Di Junyan's unknown side is that he is a reclusive collector with a large number of precious ancient books. In the fragrance of books and the rhyme of ink, two people with completely different origins, backgrounds, and positions test each other and gradually get closer.
Di Junyan discovered that some of Chen Yutong's students were related to a mysterious anti-Japanese force that he wanted to trace. Chen Yutong discovered that there seemed to be ulterior secrets hidden behind the Di family's seemingly stable business empire. The two sway between emotion and responsibility, ideals and reality. When the gunfire of the Battle of Songhu rang out, under the righteousness of their family and country, they had to make the final choice: follow their family's arrangements, or follow their inner beliefs?
