Shen Zhaoning, the orphaned daughter of loyal martyrs, marries Lu Xiuyan and devotes her entire dowry and network of connections to helping him rise through the ranks. Yet Lu Xiuyan repays her kindness with betrayal, publicly humiliating her on New Year's Eve by calling her a "good-for-nothing." Shen Zhaoning silently endures the insult until the ancestral worship ceremony, where she appears in the royal attire of a commandery princess bestowed upon her by the emperor and refuses to kneel. She then divorces Lu Xiuyan. With the support of her younger brother, Shen Jixuan, and the emperor, she exposes Lu Xiuyan's embezzlement of 470,000 taels of silver and his exploitation of laborers, which caused more than a hundred deaths. Lu Xiuyan is sentenced to immediate execution. Shen Zhaoning leaves the capital and returns to Qiangcheng, the city once protected by her parents, where her younger brother welcomes her home.