Set during the Taiping Rebellion, the plot sets the rebels against the ruling Manchu dynasty. Yehenala who would become the Dowager Empress, is one of many to be a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor (in the novel written "Hsien Feng"). She gives birth to a son and during the Second Opium War flees with the Emperor when the foreign troops invade and loot Beijing. She deals both with foreign diplomacy and court politics.