The first episode begins with a raid on the palace by a group of rebels led by the guard of the former deposed king. After killing their way to the main palace, he finally arrives before the king. However, his plan to assassinate the king fails and he dies instead. The king sends his guards to check on the crown prince but he is discovered to be missing. Crown prince Lee Gun secretly left the palace to meet his younger half brother prince Dosung to investigate a suspicious rebel group but they end up getting in a fight with scammers after revealing their identity. The scammers are arrested by the police and to hide the scars on Lee gun’s face, Dosung takes him to a gisaeng house (prostitute house) to dab his face with makeup.
When he arrives back at the palace, his father the king chastises him in front of the officials for leaving the palace without his permission. One of them nearly discovers he is wearing makeup but the Royal physician distracts his attention. The king then scolds Lee Gun privately with his two wives and explodes when Lee Gun tells him that he and Dosung went to a gisaeng house. He threatens to give the throne to Dosung if he doesn’t take time. To curb his excesses, The queen dowager suggests they marry him off to Myung hoon, The royal physician’s daughter purely because of his loyalty. They don’t even care to know Lee Gun’s opinion on this.
Myung hoon isn’t the typical high society lady. She works as a physician for the poor and defends them. After getting into a fight with a group of thugs, she decides to enter a drinking competition with them so that they would stop being a nuisance once and for all. She wins, earning their respect. However, she ends up getting drunk and her maid struggles to take her home. Meanwhile, the royal physician visits an old seer who foretells that his daughter Myung hoon would end up a widow. She would be the cause of the crown prince’s death if they were to get married unless the royal physician pays the ultimate price.
Myeong Hoon is still drunk but perfectly hides it when her father returns home and has a discussion with her. He tells her to quit working at the clinic and prepare to become the crown princess. Myeong Hoon isn’t too happy with the news. Her maid is so excited that she would become the future queen but Myeong Hoon worries that her maid Oh wol won’t be able to get married or have kids when she starts working in the palace but Oh wol doesn’t seem to mind as long as she can live in luxury.
Prince Lee Gun and his guard Gap seok are chatting while fishing in the palace pond when his hook catches something shocking. It’s the corpse of a young maid in the palace who worked under the queen dowager. They had once run into each other and he saw she had Yakgwa, a special treat she wanted to give her mother and brother during her break. Lee Gun had even offered to give her some to take home.
When Lee Gun hears from Gap seok that she had committed suicide, he doesn’t believe it and goes through her case files where he discovered that another maid working for the Queen dowager had also died from suicide which is suspicious. He calls the attention of the physician Heo Jin soo who handled the autopsy of both maids. Heo Jin soo claims there’s no foul play but Lee Gun is suspicious of him but pretends to believe him. He dismisses him much to Gap seok disbelief.
Royal physician comes to meet him by the stream and tells him he conducted another autopsy which proved that the maid did commit suicide. He suggests doing a third autopsy to relieve his suspicions but Lee Gun decides against it. However, when he received an anonymous message telling him to hide at Byeong hall during the second watch of the night, Lee Gun changes his mind. Him and Gap seok hide at the roof during that time, getting tired as the hours pass. Just as they are about the leave, they see something shocking. The queen dowager enters with a man who is apparently her lover. They start kissing but Gap Seok’s movements distract them and they leave the room feeling watched.
Lee Gun, shocked, was unable to identify the lover. The only thing he left behind is a needle canister mostly owned by physicians. Lee Gun starts investigating and that night, he and Gap seok climb over the wall to find the person who can help them.
Royal physician returns home to find Myeong Hoon attending to patients. Angry, he orders his guard Moo seok to stop her from coming to the clinic. Myeong Hoon talks to her father in private saying she doesn’t want to marry as she’s aware of her cursed fate to whoever marries her but her father says he has a plan and that she should prepare to enter the palace. As she leaves his chambers, she notices his guard Moo seok leading a group of men to meet her father and suspects something is up. Inside, Royal physician pays the men some money to handle some matter.
Myeong Hoon and her maid Oh wol prepare to flee that night but Moo seok catches them however, she convinces him to tell her what her father is planning because she fears he would do something evil because of her.
Meanwhile, Lee Gun and Gap seok have a drink in a tavern when Lee Gun suddenly grows dizzy and collapses. Those same men paid by the royal physician hit Gap seok causing him to blank out. They put Lee Gun in a carriage and carry him to the royal physician’s house. The episode ends.
So this is a nice beginning. It makes me more eager to watch the coming ones.