Shen Wei, the daughter of a seventh-rank imperial censor, falls sound asleep during her first-birthday object-grabbing ceremony and is judged to be a girl without good fortune. Yet Prince Xiao Che rests his head on her belly and falls asleep beside her, prompting the emperor to declare that she has grasped the empire itself. When she enters the palace as a study companion, she repeatedly suffers jealousy and schemes from Liu Yanran, the chancellor's daughter. With her intelligence and Xiao Che's protection, she carefully advances step by step, successively bringing down the Liu family and the Second Prince's faction. She is ultimately crowned empress, and when her own son reaches for objects at his first-birthday ceremony, he runs toward her, bringing the story full circle and fulfilling the fate foretold at the beginning.