1880年（清光绪六年），医药世家白府与官宦世家詹府，由于詹府的大格格一对私生子女的纠纷而结下深仇。正值宫中死了一位女嫔妃，乃詹家的二格格，詹府王爷乘机将白府大爷白颖园牵连在内，打入死囚牢。虽用掉包计将其救出，也只能隐姓埋名远走他乡。那对私生子女的生父武贝勒，怕受连累弃大格格而去。而白府亦被宫中矛盾所累当了替死羊。百年老号《百草厅》老药铺被查封，全府陷入绝境。老太爷白萌堂悲愤交加，与世长辞，全府重担落在了二儿媳白文氏一人身上，三爷白颖宇乃一纨绔子弟，百般要挟终使三个房头分了家。白文氏于内外交困中运筹帷幄，费劲心机终将老号盘回。白府复兴，白文氏一举成为白府的权威、当家人；然而她却管教不了自己的儿子白景琦。这个从降生之时便不会哭的人，从小顽劣不可救药，后终于被文武双全的老师季宗布所降伏，长大成人充满了愤世嫉俗的反叛精神，竟与仇家詹府的私生女黄春私定终身。

講述了醫藥世家白府經歷清末、民國、軍閥混戰、解放等時期的浮沉變化，忠實地反映了同仁堂這個大家族隨著國家、民族的歷史發展而發展的漸變過程。故事橫跨光緒年間、1900年八國聯軍侵入北京、1911年清朝覆滅、1931年九·一八事變、1937年七·七盧溝橋事變。官場恩怨、情場愛恨、商場輸贏。譜寫了一曲“宅門”史，展一幅波瀾壯闊動盪社會生活畫卷，父母子孫、妻妾丫妓、至愛親朋；“宅門”人，譜一曲世態炎涼悲歡離合命運之歌。

This Chinese period drama series follows the fortunes of a prominent merchant family engaged in Traditional Chinese Medicine during the waning years of the Ching dynasty. The affairs of this family of doctors/pharmacists (which in those days were one and the same) are intimately linked with social upheavals of the time such as the encroachment of Christian missionaries and foreign imperialism as well as conflicts that inevitably emerge in a large upper class family. Comparable in scope and production value to such recent titles as "Downton Abbey", the lives and character of both masters and servants intertwine in plot lines that spans more than a generation.