The story of an innocent girl who is destined to become one of the emperor´s concubines. Initially she suffers from a loss of innocence and the intrigues of the other concubines but over the course of time she becomes less and less scrupulous and finally is impregnated by the emperor and thus becomes his wife - the empress of China. However, her career has corrupted her once innocent soul and so, after the emperor dies she rules the land with terror. Empress Dowager Cixi goes from just another pretty face in the harem of the concubines to the First Lady of Vice via various strategies and manipulations in a most-ambitious political conspiracy with spine-chilling viciousness.