All 18-year-old Jiayi wants is to keep her head down and serve her mistress, but the ever-changing tides of The Forbidden City continue to drag her under. Faced with a lifetime chained to a lecherous eunuch, Jiayi cons her way out of slavedom and into the service of The Emperor's newest concubine. However, dark secrets hide beneath the powdered faces and delicate silks. Jaiyi is thrust into a world where battles are fought with sharp lipstick, smiles, and whispers when her mistress draws the ire of the vengeful Imperial Noble Concubine. Even worse, Jiayi finds that getting her hands dirty becomes less horrifying as time goes on. Will Jiayi be able to claw her way out of the sea of schemes and traps, or will she become one of the many ghosts of The Forbidden City, silent and forgotten?

Being a second wife is rather like learning to perfect a set of aerial maneuvers. There are seriously complicated stunts involved: trapezing around the first wife, learning when to appear and disappear at exactly the right moments, tolerating your mother in law, enduring the concubines, and getting the husband in your bed. No one expects to be a second wife. No one does.