21st-century state banquet master chef Fang Qiuran time-travels to become a palace firewood-burning maid, unexpectedly acquiring the superpower of "hearing inner voices". Relying on her modern culinary skills and mind-reading, she conquers the emperor, the empress dowager, and the concubines of various palaces with innovative dishes such as pickled pepper chicken offal, crab roe mixed rice, and fire-bathing phoenix, and even brings down the corrupt Shangshi Bureau superintendent Zhou Gonggong in one fell swoop. From a marginalized low-level maid to managing the Shangshi Bureau, she establishes a firm foothold in the deep palace through her craftsmanship, and is finally canonized as empress by the emperor.