Back in 1982, Meng Shuyao faces ridicule from her older sister and schemes from her parents. She gives up on her highly educated suitor, who looks impressive on the surface, and marries Lu Zheng, a soldier who has been out of contact, becoming stepmother to his four withdrawn daughters.
When she first arrives at the Lu home, she finds children who are gaunt and hostile, as well as her husband's cousin, Zhou Chenggui, who has been pocketing the money Lu sends home.
She protects her stepdaughters and outwits her malicious relatives. Pursuing her dream of becoming a writer, she handwrites a serialized story by lamplight, reworking the lively, costume-drama antics of a story like My Fair Princess into a fictional Great Yan dynasty. What starts as a serial tucked into a corner of a magazine soon draws so many reader letters that they pile up by the stack.
Her writing fees pay for school tuition, braised pork, and one new dress after another. Each of the four girls discovers her talents, and after repeatedly standing up for their mother, they come to accept their adoptive mother wholeheartedly and call her Mom.
Her birth family, sister, and cousin take turns causing trouble, but she turns the tables with face-slapping comebacks. Her decorated husband, Lu Zheng, returns alive after narrowly escaping death. They go from strangers to partners, and ultimately uncover the wicked trap his sister set.
This is a story of raising children, writing books, making money, face-slapping, and finding healing in a bygone era.
