Produced by Mui Siu-ching, the serial is one of two TVB productions to celebrate along with the channel's 42nd anniversary, the other being Born Rich.

It stars Charmaine Sheh, Tavia Yeung, Moses Chan, Kevin Cheng, Susanna Kwan and Michelle Yim as the main leads.

Gong Choi-king, a jewellery maker, is forced back into the palace with her daughter, Lau Sam-ho and their servant, Yiu Kam-ling.

She was assigned the task of making a beautiful, gold hairpiece in the shape of a phoenix, with a luminous pearl as the eye and the feathers of a river kingfisher as the tail for the Empress Dowager.

Around the time of Choi-king's death, Dowager Concubine Cheng's son, Lee Yi, the prince, encounters a 6 year old Sam-ho.

He shows kindness to her by giving her some white flowers from Choi-king's favourite tree, the Chinese viburnum (瓊花), so she can take it to her dying mother.

Empress Dowager was still very angry because of the hair piece and asked the new head of the Jewellery department, Yuen Chui-wan to shatter it.

After a short period of time, bad luck begins to happen to Dowager Concubine Cheng and her son Lee Yi.

A rumour spreads around the palace that Lee Yi fell from the tree and injured his head, causing his brain to remain as a 6-year-old boy forever.

Years later, a grown up Sam-ho meets Ko Hin-yeung, a palace scholar and also a chess teacher and the two share a secret love.

Sam-ho and Kam-ling continue their friendship, treating each other as sisters and this provokes jealousy among other palace girl servants.

After in 2004, the highly successful TVB drama series War and Beauty gripped a huge audience and gained excellent ratings.

[8] When initial script was first submitted, it was temporarily called Lau Sam Ho, representing Charmaine Sheh's character.

[16] Yeung pointed out that the female cast in the series suffer from neck and shoulder pains, "The head ornaments are too heavy.

It revolves around palace scheming, which has been featured in numerous TVB television series before Beyond the Realm of Conscience and also beyond Hong Kong, China and Taiwan in dramas from Korea and other East Asian countries.

These series were originally made popular by War and Beauty, also produced by TVB in 2004 and also as an anniversary grand production.

However, this series is different in that carries the typical message that good (Lau Sam Ho, Charmaine Sheh) always beats evil (Yiu Kam Ling, Tavia Yeung).

Tavia Yeung's acting skills initially received criticism from viewers saying that she was not "evil" enough for her role as "Yiu Gam Ling" but by the end of the series, she won praise.

For the final episode the series managed to receive 50 points for the scene in which the characters of Sam Ho and Ko Hin Yeung were reunited.