After the previous emperor dies, the fourteen-year-old crown prince, Zhou Jingheng, is hastily enthroned. Cao Shouren, the Minister of Revenue, conspires with Dowager Consort Zheng to seize control of the court. He also secretly colludes with the Chijong, forcing the Grand Princess, Zhou Zhaoning, to marry into a foreign royal family for political alliance. Everyone thinks the Grand Princess is a fool. At court, she proposes collecting twenty years of taxes all at once, points at the Minister and tells him to go marry into the foreign royal family instead, and even suggests that the emperor's duties be divided into rotating shifts. Yet these seemingly absurd, terrible ideas gradually expose corruption, treason, and the truth behind the previous emperor's death, while pushing the timid young emperor to become a wise ruler remembered throughout the ages.