19世纪后半叶，湖南乡下一个小姑娘，因出色的刺绣手艺进了皇宫，得以耳闻目睹了晚清宫廷的种种阴谋诡计、贪婪欲望、翻云覆雨，并卷入了一段复杂的三角关系——懦弱的帝王、野心勃勃的王爷，她该如何选择。陪伴在慈禧身边走过晚清政局最为动荡的几十年，她亲身经历了三代帝王的陨落，并亲眼见证了大清帝国从衰亡走向倒塌的全过程。
When I was a child, I thought my destiny was to live and die on the banks of the Xiangjiang River as my family had done for generations. I never imagined that my life would lead me to the Forbidden City and the court of China’s last Empress. Born in the middle of nowhere, Yaqian, a little embroidery girl from Hunan Province, finds her way to the imperial court, a place of intrigue, desire, and treachery. From the bed of an Emperor, the heart of a Prince, and the right side of an Empress, Yaqian weaves her way through the most turbulent decades of China’s history and witnesses the fall of the Qing Dynasty.