Zhao Ruzhou, a talented scholar from Shandong, falls in love with a famous songstress Xie Suqiu through exchanging letters and poems for three years. Qian Jizhi arranges them to meet in a temple but, Wang Fu, the Prime Minister, sends for Suqiu to perform at his feast and forces her to lead his 120 concubines to the state of Jin as a flattery. Ruzhou comes to see Suqiu but is expelled by Wang Fu. Ruzhou and Suqiu’s meeting becomes futile.

With the help from Liu Gongdao, one of Wang Fu’s advisors, Suqiu flees by using the dead body of Feng Feiyan, who has poisoned herself, as a cover. Ruzhou follows the procession and is saddened by the news of Suqiu’s death. Suqiu and Ruzhou then seek refuge at Jizhi’s house respectively. One night, Ruzhou, being drunk, chases a red butterfly all the way to the Red Pear Yard and meets Suqiu. With Jizhi’s advice and Ruzhou’s propects in mind, Suqiu restrains herself from disclosing her true identity, but leaving Ruzhou a red pear flower as a metaphor for her love.

Later, Suqiu is betrayed by Shen Yongxin and taken back by Wang Fu. Fortunately, Ruzhou comes out first in the imperial examination and under the imperial order, goes to Wang Fu’s residence to investigate his bribery to the state of Jin. Surprised to see red pear flowers decorated everywhere, Ruzhou reunites with Suqiu finally and wins both Justice and Love.

Princess Fengxia laughed at the handicapped ambassadors sent from neighboring countries. Insulted, the ambassadors vowed to go to war. The General Commander in Chief Meng Feihong fought a victorious battle and probed into the cause of the war. During the trial, he was defeated by the princess’ quick wits. Likened by the Princess, Feihong was ordered to marry the Princess. At Feihong ‘s mansion, the Princess asked Feihong to kneel to her but Feihong took out the Imperial Golden Truncheon and instead forced her to kowtow every three steps while entering his house. At night, the Princess refused to let her husband into the wedding chamber thus Feihong resorted to sleeping on the ground. She then complained to the king and asked to have Feihong banished to a Buddhist temple. Feihong was punished accordingly, but the Princess regretted and asked Tian Fu to rescue him. Finally, the Princess rushed to the temple and the young couple happily reunited.

King Liang is dying. Princess Yinping declines to support the eldest Prince Wenjian’s succession to the throne because of her love for Prince Wenjian’s younger brother, Wenyong. General Wei Gancheng fails to change her mind. Upon Shuang-e’s delivery of the King’s will to Wenyong, the Princess is persuaded by Liu Liuren to mobilize her army to support Wenyong and send people to assassin Wenjian. Wenjian is killed. General Zhao has no choice but helps Prince Wengong to flee. After Wenyong becomes the new king, he executes a large number of ministers and officials, and generously rewards Shuang-e and Xie Song. Besides, upon the excuse that she goes to the court with her sword, he punishes the Princess by breaking the vow of their marriage and taking away her army. Taking the advantage of Wenyong being drunk, Xie Song fakes an royal decree to execute the Princess. Greatly outraged, General Wei storms into the Palace and kills Xie Song. To pacify Wei and stop him from killing Shuang-e , Wenyong promises to marry him the Princess. When the Princess feels regretful for making everyone suffer, General Wei grasps the chance to persuade her to help Prince Wengong to overthrow the wicked ruler. On the way of escape, the defeated Wenyong pleads the Princess to let him go, but is objected by General Wei. Overwhelmed with shame after learning Shuang-e’s betrayal of the country, he kills both Shuang-e and himself. At last, Wengong becomes the new king with the support of the Princess.

Hua Yunlong, a general of Zhu Yuanzhang(the founding monarch of Ming Dynasty), kills Zhang Shicheng’s eldest son Zhang Ren and forces Hu Lan to accompany him to Wucheng state, where Yunlong identifies himself as Ren so as to cheat Chen Youliang to marry him his daughter, Princess Yinping. He succeeds after responding wittily to Zhang Dingbian’s questions.

Yunlong is reprimanded by his sister Yunfeng because of his indulgence in the newly-wed life. He then has a drink with Yinping at the backyard and persuades her to urge Youliang to join forces with Zhu at Lishan. Youliang is killed in an ambush at Lishan and the Princess vows to kill Yunlong to avenge her father. When Yinping leads the army to the city, the guilt-ridden Yunlong surrenders himself to her hands.

Having been wounded by Yunfeng, Yinping flees to a shabby temple, and Yunlong comes to help. Dingbian rushes there to kill Yunlong. Fortunately, Liu Bowen and Hu Lan arrive and disclose how Youliang kills the King of Northern Han, seizes his throne and his concubine, and even adopts his posthumous child as his own daughter. Yinping then knows that Yunlong actually helps kill her enemy. Finally, the lovers settle all the grudges.

Twin sisters Huang Yumei and Yufen are arranged a marriage to the family of Yang and Ma respectively before their birth. The war has separated the sisters. While Madam Huang replaces Yumei with Yufen and marries her to General Yang Zhicheng for the sake of his richness, Yumei pretends to be Yufen and follows Ma Junsheng under the order of her father.

Appreciating Junsheng’s ability, the Chief General Liu Zhenbang orders him to lead the army. Yumei comes to the battlefield and brings Junsheng his battle robe. Mistaking Yumei for her sister, Zhicheng is furious at Yufen being loose in morals. Zhenbang’s army runs short of food and the soldiers are too hungry to fight. Junsheng plans to kill his wife to feed the soldiers. As Zhicheng mistakes Yumei for his wife, he agrees to the plan so as to kill Yufen. Baining is forced to distract Xiaolan away. Junsheng confesses to Yumei his plan and passes out when he tries to kill her. Zhicheng arrives and finds out that the dead lady is not his wife. To help her husband, Yumei ends her own life leaving a suicide note. Junsheng recovers and gets disappointed at his wife, thinking she has run away with Baining. On the other hand, on the way of fleeing Baining bumps into Yufen, who is looking for her husband. Framed by Emperor of the enemy Hu Hantu, they are mistaken as spies, as a bomb is being put into their luggage. Junsheng investigates into the case and is about to execute the ladies. Arriving in time, Zhicheng stops the execution and presents the suicide note written by Yumei. At the same time, Madam Huang is searching for her daughters at the site. The truth is revealed. Eventually, Yufen and Junsheng fulfill the marriage promise since birth. Zhicheng marries Xiaolan.

Prime Minister Wang Yun has three daughters. The eldest, JingQian, is the wife of SuLong, who works as an official for the Registrar; the middle daughter, YinQian, is married to YiFu, Assistant Minister of the Corps. The youngest daughter, the spoiled and willful BaoQian, holds a party at a crossroads in order to choose a husband. A tall facade is erected, upon which BaoQian will stand to toss a brocade ball. Whoever catches the ball will become her husband.

The ball is caught by the downtrodden pauper Xue Pinggui. In light of Xue’s poverty and humble origins, Wang Yun refuses to give him BaoQian’s hand, but BaoQian stubbornly insists on honoring the outcome of the ball toss. BaoQian is disowned by her father and sets out after Xue. She finds him in a dilapidated temple, and they are married under the witness of Zhu ErXing. The couple makes their home in a cold cave.

A wild red steed, sent as tribute from Siberia in an attempt to be deliberately difficult, comes to the Emperor. When Xue is able to tame the wild horse, the Emperor decides to assign him to the logistics command. Wang Yun interferes, and instead convinces the Emperor to make Xue a foot soldier in the front guard. Learning that he is about to be deployed, Xue hurries back to the cave to say farewell. In sadness, BaoQian serves water wine for her husband’s departure, and vows to be loyal. After receiving three successive commands for Xue to report for duty, the couple is finally forced to part.

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor tells Princess Changping to select her husband, and Zhou Shixian, the son of the Minister of Coachman, becomes the chosen. However, the capital falls to the rebels when Shixian is being ennobled at the Palace. Emperor Chongzhen puts his wives to death before killing his daughters with his sword. Then, he hangs himself at Meishan.

The Princess, having been wounded by her father, is rescued by Zhou Zhong. Knowing her father and brother’s plot to surrender the Princess to the Qing Emperor, Zhong’s daughter Ruilan, assisted by an old nun, helps the Princess disguise as the deceased nun Weiqing and live in seclusion. A year later, passing by the nunnery, Shixian comes across the Princess picking firewoods as a nun. After a few queries of her true identity, Shixian reunites with the Princess and arranges to meet her again that night.

As Shixian comes for the Princess with Zhong and his son Baolun at the Purple Jade Villa, Shixian persuades her to go back to the palace with him and beg the Qing Emperor to give a decent burial for her father and release her brother. With their wishes granted, the princess and Shixian ask for their wedding ritual to be performed under the camphor tree. Then, they both take poison and sacrifice for their country.

King of Northern Qi has been murdered for his throne. Xia Yunlong & Mao Delin gather to protect the crown prince fleeing to Northern Wei to escape from this disaster, yet being captured at Zhao He Guan. Turns out the commander in chief is Yunlong’s fiancée He Caifeng. He Feihu offers to be the witness of their marriage.Feihu is the Royal princess’ husband. Unfortunately, his wife died in the early years. For the sake of his son, Feihu marries Yunlong’s sister Xia Yunxiang. In order to regain the throne, Yunlong begs his wife for the token of military control. Then Delin instigates Chaoming to disturb the newlywed, in order to obtain Feihu’s armory’s key. With the force, Yunlong & Delin successfully defeated the Northern Qi’s army. Because of this military action,Feihu’s father is convicted, Feihu blames Chaoming for this. To save their father, the He’s argue with the Xia’s at court. Kao threats Xia to retrieve the army, Madame Xia commits suicide to encourage her son to terminate the evil. The crown prince eventually regains power, the generous prince then agrees to surrender part of the city to King of Northern Wei in order to atone for the Xia’s crime.

The King of Northern Qi invades Wei, and violates Concubine Wei. He then dies suddenly after Concubine Wei, gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl. When the jealous Queen intends to kill Concubine Wei and the twins, Caixia and Rong Jin take them to flee the palace. Guo Shifan is then ennobled for killing Concubine Wei.

Caixia adopts Princess Fenglian as her niece and earns their living by selling medicine in the streets while Rong Jin adopts Prince Yulong as his son. As a grown-up, Fenglian loves both Zhao Jinlong the outlander and Yulong. At first, she chooses to marry Zhao Jinlong. However, learning that Yulong becomes The Queen of Northern Qi’s foster son, Fenglian finally decides to be Yulong’s wife, in order to avenge her mother.

Taunted and angered by Yulong, Jinlong, who actually is the Crown Prince of Zhao, goes home and leads his troops to attack Qi. Before the wedding night, Yulong is defeated and wounded at the battlefield.

Jinlong intrudes into the palace and sees Caixia who clears the misunderstandings between the lovers. And when Jinlong tries to kill Yulong, Jin stops him by exposing the identity of the twins. After the reunited brother and sister kill the Queen and Shifan, they regain control of the country.

Zhu Bian, a loyal minister of the Song Dynasty, goes to Jin as an envoy to plead for the return of the two former emperors of Song. The emperor of Jin detains Zhu and attempts to force him to defect. Defiant in the face of the threat of death, Zhu is exiled to the Cold Mountain as a herdsman. Princess Xuehua of Jin, moved by his loyalty and admiring his talent, falls in love with Zhu. With the princess’s help, Zhu is finally able to return to Song. Although Zhu can hardly bear to part with the princess, loyalty and duty take precedence.

Back in Song, the returned envoy is accused of being a Jin spy. Zhu’s family is executed and he is sentenced to die from a cup of poisoned wine. Filled with indignation, sorrow and shame because he will no longer be of help to his country, the loyal minister is ready to comply. At the last moment, the Jin troops arrive and the princess knocks over the cup of poisoned wine. During the bloody battle, the crown prince of Jin wounds the princess. Before she dies, Xuehua encourages Zhu to save the nation, and expresses sorrow that their love cannot survive the troubled times. Zhu is left with nothing but grief and regret.