Chun'er, an orphan girl in the Cold Palace, has only Jinbao, a favored eunuch before the emperor's court, willing to secretly relieve her with pastries. Yet this handout is filled with extreme humiliation; she must kneel on the ground to bark like a dog and call him godfather, solely to secure a thread of survival in the man-eating deep palace. She originally thought Jinbao was her sole reliance, but unexpectedly discovered that the family letters demanding money and goods were all secretly intercepted and manipulated by him. Jinbao regards her as a meticulously cultivated chess piece, using the metaphor of growing flowers to imprison and control her. Chun'er is forced to submit and ingratiate herself, while Jinbao, who has raised her for many years, has long plotted to use this flower imprisoned in the deep palace to stir up the political winds and rains of the imperial court.