In an era when women were expected to obey their husbands and households, becoming 'good wives and wise mothers' as the pinnacle of virtue...

Hinako, who returned from years abroad and graduated from a girls' school, faced pressure from her mother to accept a 'suitable' arranged marriage to a man thirty years her senior. Struggling with the gap between her own values and societal norms, she found hope in her great-aunt’s proposal: employment as a court lady in the imperial palace.

After passing the rigorous exam and breaking free from her mother’s control, Hinako began her new life at the palace. But...?