Summary
At five, Yin Zhao called her sister-in-law Mother to escape a beating. By ten, Cui Deyin has become the person holding her world together. Then Zhao’s father and both brothers die in battle, leaving a child and a young widow in a house filled with mourning silk. While imperial honors promise to preserve the Yin family’s glory, Zhao sees what duty may cost the woman who raised her. Through grief, stubborn affection, and the slow return of laughter, she must learn how to love her family without asking anyone to surrender the rest of her life.