Phoenix Over All: The Legitimate Daughter's Gambit tells the revenge story of Shen Qinglan, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Zhenbei. At the age of eight, she witnessed her birth mother being poisoned by the concubine Wang. Before dying, her mother gave her a red-gold phoenix hairpin concealing evidence of treason. To protect her own daughter, Qingwan, Wang persuaded the marquis to send Qinglan to the palace in her sister's place, then schemed to marry Qingwan to the young general Qinglan loved.
The imperial palace is a bottomless abyss. Starting as a low-ranking consort, Qinglan struggles to survive in the treacherous harem through her extraordinary intelligence and the emperor's favor. Outside the palace, her half-sister Qingwan joins forces with the princely estate and the Northern Di, weaving a web and vowing to destroy her elder sister. Their battle of wits spans the distance between them, from the marquis's estate to the imperial palace, and from schemes involving cosmetics to conspiracies over the army and the realm. Their contests grow ever more intense.
After enduring framing, the loss of her child, and betrayal, Qinglan is forged in the crucible of despair. She ultimately ascends to the phoenix throne and takes control of the realm. But Qingwan is as hard to kill as a centipede, colluding with foreign powers and setting the border ablaze. When the final confrontation arrives, the truth hidden in the red-gold phoenix hairpin completely overturns the court. This is the ultimate struggle over legitimate and illegitimate birth, love, power, and the people's hearts. It lays bare the cruel laws of class in ancient society: the poor are trapped by food and clothing, women by the inner chambers, the rich by gains and losses, and those in power by suspicion. The people's hearts, however, are the blade that can break the deadlock.
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