At the Song Emperor’s Spring Festival banquet, the talented Liu Yu’e beats all men in a riddle and the emperor rewards her a jade coin. She gives it to her husband Chen Jichang. Su Qincao, an unwilling candidate for the emperor’s harem, infiltrates into the palace as a songtress and seeks help from her cousin Su Dongpo.

Dongpo invites Jichang to Lanting to enjoy the spring landscape. Yu’e makes Jichang vow to the rosewood stick for fidelity and sends Liu Xiang to monitor him in secret. For avenging the insult of the salary-cut punishment proposed by Yu’e at the Emperor’s banquet, Dongpo advises Qincao to be Jichang’s concubine and ask for the jade coin as an engagement token. Liu Xiang discloses all these to Yu’e for a generous reward.

Back home, the infuriated Yu’e beats Jichang with the rosewood stick and orders him to kneel and repent by a willowy pond. Dongpo seeks the chance to instigate Jichang to divorce Yu’e. When she goes to the court for justice, Yu’e’s uncle Gui Yushu tries to punish her for being a shrew. However, he himself is ordered to kneel by his wife.

Jichang and Yushu then go to beg the emperor for help. The emperor orders Yu’e to let Jichang keep Qincao as his concubine but she chooses to take arsenic instead. Fortunately, the Empress has replaced the poison with vinegar. Finally the couple is reconciled and reunited.

Dou’e is sold to the Cai’s family as a child bride. Zhang Luer, who craves for Dou’e’s beauty, makes a marriage proposal to her. Being rejected, Luer resentfully sends his man to mess up the bridge. To farewell her husband Cai Changzong, who is leaving home for the imperial examination three days after the marriage, Dou’e makes him a gift of an embroidered sachet. Yet, Changzong goes missing in water once he steps on the broken bridge.

Dou’e and her mother-in-law Madame Cai rely on each other to live on, and keeps declining Luer’s marriage proposal. To get rid of Madame Cai, Luer attempts to murder her with a poisoned soup; mistakenly kills his own mother. Luer bribes Qian Mu, the County Magistrate, into framing up Madame Cai. To bear the torture for her aged mother-in-law, Dou’e replaces Madame Cai and is sentenced to death.

On the other hand, Changzong is saved from the water and gets the first rank in the imperial examination. The Emperor assigns Changzong as the province governor. Upon returning home, Changzong passes the execution ground. While a heavy snow descends in June, Changzong notices it as an omen of injustice. Thus, he orders to bring Dou’e’s case to trial again. In the court, he guides the mute maid Lixiang to be a witness against Luer. Dou’e’s crime is cleared and Luer is brought to justice eventually. The family reunite happily.

Village girl Bai Lixiang and her brother Bai Zhicheng depend on each other in life. Lixiang saved the wounded general Wei Jianhun. They get married and Lixiang is pregnant afterwards. Originally the Prince of Western Liang, Jianhun bids farewell to his wife and sets off to borrow armed forces from the country of Eastern Qi with Zhicheng. He promises to return by the time swallows are back.

While Princess Shanhu discovers Zhicheng is disguised as a prince, she forces Jianhun into marrying her as an exchange for borrowing armed forces. Disguised as sister of Jianhun, Princess Shanhu steals Lixiang’s son and asks her to lie to Jianhun that their son has been dead. She also orders the general Cai Xiongfeng to kill Lixiang and her son. After knowing the truth, Xiongfeng saves Lixiang’s life instead of executing her. Xihua, the maid of Honour, cannot bear to hurt the child. She then abandons the baby on the bridge.

Thinking of gifting money to his sister, Zhicheng returns and comes across the abandoned baby on the bridge. On the wedding ceremony, Xiongfeng leads Lixiang to meet her lover and asks for her son at the imperial hall. Though Princess Shanhu tries to hide the truth, Xihua presents as a witness and reveals everything. Afterwards, Jianhun learns that his son was saved by Zhucheng. The family finally reunite happily.

Sima Zhongxian and Liu Rushuang are lovers. On the eve of Zhongxian’s expeditionary errand, the lovers, without their parents’ knowledge, exchange an armour and a flute as betrothal gifts. However, Zhongxian’s elder, handicapped brother Boling, who also loves Rushuang, forces his stepmother to match them. Besides, Li Meizhu intends to separate the lovers because she has had a crush on Zhongxian. Unwillingly, Rushuang agrees to marry Boling out of gratitude to the Sima family.

With Rushuang’s brother Mengxiong, Zhongxian returns home in triumph and is shocked at the wedding of Rushuang and Boling. Since his lover becomes his sister-in-law, Zhongxian returns Rushuang the armour and refuses to run away with her. Having discovered their secret, Boling scolds Rushuang but is taunted in return. Overwhelmed with anger, Boling runs away from home.

Worrying about Boling, Madame Sima gets sick. One day, Boling is seen begging in the street by Madame Sima, but he refuses to go back with her. After Zhongxian returns home with the title of a noble, Boling reprimands Madame Sima for spoiling him. Madame Sima begins to realize her wrongness for spoiling Boling and mistreating Zhongxian. Boling, having experienced the hardships of life, agrees to settle the grudges with Zhongxian and part with Rushuang for the sake of reuniting the family.

Having lived as a hostage in Jin since childhood, Princess Hongluan gives Yelu Junxiong her pledge to be his wife. However, her ship is sunk by pirates on the way back to Song. In the water, Hongluan is mistaken as Ni Xiudian, who tries to drown herself to avoid the marriage arranged by her father Ni Si’an. Hongluan is saved by Ni Si’an, but has lost her memory. Later, Si’an marries her to Shang Quanxiao in his daughter’s place. Madame Shang despises Hongluan, but Quanxiao, out of pity, accommodates her.

Junxiong, being the champion in the imperial examination for military officers, bumps into Hongluan at Minister Shang’s mansion. However, he is wrongly regarded as a flirtatious man and expelled by Minster Shang. One night, Prince Di, brother of Hongluan, comes to order Si’an to translate a letter from Jin. Trying to fudge on it but in vain, Si’an has Princess Hongluan disguised as a man and read the letter. Prince Di is impressed and decides to marry his sister (Xiudian) to Hongluan.

On the wedding night, the two girls each give birth to a baby. Madame Shang has no choice but to say that she is the mother of the newborns. That night, under the order from Prince Di, Junxiong tries the strange case, but his true identity is revealed. Facing punishment from Prince Di, the desperate Junxiong sings “The Barbarian’s Song” which revives Hongluan’s memory and unexpectedly leads to the reunion of the Ni’s family. Finally, happiness befalls the two pairs of lovers after so much distress.

By the Peach Blossom Lake, Zhu Danfeng and Ren Jincheng fall in love during hunting and exchange love tokens. Yet Jincheng is a prince and has to leave at once to Nan Ping for a royal marriage proposal. Cailuan is of royal descent, but she defies returning to the palace, so Zhu Tianci sends his own daughter, Danfeng, to pose as the new queen.

For the Queen’s marriage, the Empress Dowager prefers Liu Jinting, a relative from Northern Zhou and Tianci is in favour of Lin Ganping from the neighboring country Western Shu. However, Danfeng’s heart goes to Jincheng and she sends Cailuan to deliver the love message to him. Cailuan gets drunk and is taken advantage by Jinting.

In the royal hall, Cailuan mistakenly accuses Jincheng of violating her and the Queen expelled him. The Queen then declares war to the two princes, Jinting and Ganping, stating that whoever win the war could be her husband. The Queen is defeated and chased after by Jincheng. Tianci finally reveals the true identity of Cailuan and Jinting admits his licentious act. At the end, the Empress Dowager lets Jincheng and Danfeng to get married.

Cao Zhi and Zhen Mi are in love. However, King Cao Cao wants to make Zhi his successor, so he chooses Chen Dezhu to be Zhi’s wife instead of Mi for her being a captive. He further marries Mi to Cao Pi, brother of Zhi, to quench Zhi’s affection for Mi. On the wedding night, Pi, under the pretense of drunkenness, unleashes his hatred and jealousy towards Zhi. Overwhelmed with worries about Zhi’s safety, Mi falls into Pi’s trap by asking Zhi to meet her in private. As a result, Zhi is exiled to Linzi.

After Cao Cao dies, Pi becomes the king. He begins to purge his brothers to secure his rule. After the failure to summon Zhi back to the capital, Pi forces Mi to write to urge Zhi to return with the excuse that the Queen Dowager misses him.

On the Copper Bird Terrace, Pi orders Zhi to compose a poem within seven steps. If he fails, Zhi will be sentenced to death for his undeserved fame. To Pi’s surprise, Zhi accomplishes this challenging task with Mi’s encouragement. After hacking a foot off a clay tripod cauldron to illustrate how helpless Pi will be without his brothers, Mi drowns herself into the Luo River. Mourning her by the River, Zhi dreams of Mi ascending to the heaven and becomes the Goddess of the Luo River.

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At Chinese New Year Eve, Gui Nanping and Yu Jiezhen fall in love at first sight after Nanping rescues Jiezhen and her maid from Chu Tiehao’s molestation. However, when Nanping sees Jiezhen’s father, Yu Youcai, collecting debts from the poor, he beats him up and forces him to tear the IOUs into pieces so as to teach him a lesson. With this grudge and the prejudice against Nanping and for his father’s shabby clothes, Youcai breaks off the engagement that was made before Nanping and Jiezhen’s birth. He further agrees to marry Jiezhe to Tiehao.

Youcai finds that Nanping meets Jiezhen in secret and declares against their marriage unless Nanping can present a betrothal gift which matches his wealth. Nanping comes earlier than Tiehao for the bride but is expelled on the accusation of embezzling. Unwilling to marry Tiehao, Jiezhen disguises herself as the bridesmaid and has Jiebing be the bride when Tiehao comes. Her plan fails and the parties take the case to court.

With his powerful status, Tiehao compels Bi Shoufa to find Nanping guilty and forces Jiezhen to be his wife. Luckily, Nanping’ s father arrives with the imperial edict and reprimands Tiehao and Yu’ s father. Finally, Nanping and Jiezhen become a couple as they were engaged before their birth. The story comes to a happy ending.

Poet Lu You marries his cousin, Tang Wan. His mother thinks that Tang Wan will bring black luck to her son and so she forces the two to separate, which they strenuously resist. Lu You’s mother prevails, and the lovers end up marrying other people.

Three years later, the former spouses meet again in the Shen Garden. When Tang Wan toasts Lu You, mixed feelings well up in their hearts. On a wall, Lu You writes a poem titles “Phoenix Hairpin”. Shortly after the encounter, Tang Wan dies of grief.

Forty years later, Lu revisits the old place and weeps over the poem, reminiscing his beautiful wife who has passed away.