Objectives: To play detective with early triple-negative breast cancer, hunting down prognostic factors like they’re on a most-wanted list. Also, to snoop around the influence of programmed cell death ligand-1(PD-L1)expression on prognosis, because who doesn’t love a good mystery? Methods: We rounded up patients treated at the National Cancer Center and other fancy-sounding places between 2009 and 2015. We collected all their data, stained their surgical specimens with a rainbow of antibodies, and then played around with Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression curves. We even made some nomogram survival prediction models, because why not? Results: We ended up with 205 patients, 43.9% of whom were PD-L1 positive. After a median follow-up time of 63 months, we found that PD-L1 expression and lymph node metastasis were party crashers, messing with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). PD-L1 positive patients, however, seemed to have a survival advantage in DFS. Lymph node metastasis, on the other hand, was a real downer, shortening OS significantly. We also made some pretty cool 1- and 3-year DFS and OS nomogram prediction models. Conclusions: PD-L1 expression is like the golden ticket for triple-negative breast cancer patients, predicting a good prognosis. DFS is significantly longer in PD-L1 positive patients, and OS also seems to be on an upward trend. Our nomogram prognosis prediction models might even be useful for adjuvant chemotherapy in this patient group. But hey, what do we know? We’re just a bunch of researchers.