Su Wantang, the legitimate daughter of the Grand Tutor's household, is ordered by imperial decree to marry Lu Qingci, heir to the Marquis of Jing'an. Before the wedding, however, Liu Shuyao, Lu Qingci's childhood sweetheart and favored companion, secretly replaces Su Wantang's proper red wedding dress with a pink concubine's gown, humiliating her in front of everyone. Clear-headed and decisive, Su Wantang refuses to accept her fate. Seizing upon the fact that the imperial decree names only the heir without specifying who he must be, she marries General Lu Yanzhou, the Defender of the North, on her wedding day instead, leaving the disgraced and dispossessed Lu Qingci consumed with regret. After entering her new household, she takes charge of its affairs, judges right and wrong fairly, and repeatedly exposes Liu Shuyao's schemes. Built around the principle that whoever I marry becomes the heir, this is the story of a woman's rise as she uses her intelligence to defend her dignity, punish the wicked, uphold justice, and ultimately find her true love.