The film is set amongst a group of gungnyeo, or palace women in Korea during the Joseon period, and is primarily about the hidden dynamics that unfold between them.

Sworn into secrecy, submission, and celibacy, the women of the palace officially devote their lives to the well-being of the royal family.

Initially assuming it to be suicide, Chun-ryung (Park Jin-hee), the royal medic, discovers as she proceeds with the autopsy that Wol-ryung was actually strangled.

Amidst a tangled web involving suspicion of Wol-ryung's involvement in an affair with a teacher at the nearby school, the torture of a mute court maid, a beheading, and finally the records of the king's nightly visits to his concubine, an elaborate scheme spearheaded by Hee-bin's advisor transpires, where Wol-ryung was chosen to bear the crown prince, and later murdered to hide the truth of the baby's origin.

The next day, as the palace women mourn the death of the queen mother in white robes, they simultaneously also witness the coronation of the new prince in the arms of Hee-bin and the transfer of power to new hands.