While many Chinese women seek men of means to love and protect them, Jade Bai, a former nurse turned HR professional, unknowingly marries into an influential government family. Her father-in-law, Zhengting Dai, is a top minister in a big city - generous and modest and implacable in his refusal to accept envelopes to curry favor.

As she begins her new job with a multinational company, Jade falls pregnant, but her father-in law's rigid principles jeopardize the safety of her unborn baby. He has to face the possibility that being purer than driven snow sometimes helps no one. Meanwhile, Jade's coworkers uncover widespread graft that could endanger them all.

Will getting rid of the crooked ones stop the evils?

The Envelopes is a provocative story of how far love and devotion can go in the eternal struggle between good and evil.