The story happened in the Emperor YongZheng's reign of Qing dynasty. Zhen Huan is the daughter of a minister of the empire. Zhen Huan and her good friends Shen Meichong, An Lingrong was chosen to be the concubines of the Emperor...
Zhen Huan met the seventh brother of the emperor, Prince Guo. They fell in love and Zhen Huan was pregnant with his child. Prince Guo went to the battlefield. Zhen Huan received the message about Price's death. The Emperor thought Zhen Huan's baby was his son, so he asked Zhen Huan to return to the palace. In order to protect their baby, brokenhearted Zhen Huan went back to the palace and adopted the fourth son of the Emperor Hongli, who's mother has been dead. However, the day before she returning, the Prince was back safely.
The palace is full of crisis. Zhen Huan's son Hongyan was born. She lived in the palace painfully. Meichong died because of difficult labor. Zhen Huan's younger sister Yuyin married teh prince Guo.
The Queen and Lingrong tried to frame Zhen Huan but failed. The Emperor put them into the jail. The Emperor suspect Zhen Huan and the Prince Guo have an adultery affair, so he asked Zhen Huan to kill the prince by poison. Zhen Huan intend to drink the poison but the Prince stopped her. He drank the poison and died in her arm. Brokenhearted Zhen Huan revenged the old Emperor, made him died in her room.
Yuyin, Zhen Huan's sister, the prince Guo's wife adopted Hongyan. He was finally back to his own father's side. Hongli became the new Emperor, and Zhen Huan became the queen mother. But her friends, lover even the enemies were not there. She was a lonely woman in the palace in the end.
The TV play showed a life of a woman who used to be pure, but became calculating reluctantly. It's a sad drama, showing the complicated humanity and society.
By the way, the costumes in the play are quite pretty~