Empress Orchid

Seventeen-year-old Orchid belongs to an aristocratic family that has fallen on hard times. Unexpectedly, she is chosen as one of the emperor's lesser concubines. Within the Forbidden City are thousands of women hoping to bear the emperor a son and become his empress. Orchid, determined and resourceful, schemes her way into the royal bed and seduces the emperor. But as the opium trade erodes the might of the Ch'ing dynasty, Orchid find herself at the center of a crumbling nation.

It is the final days of the Chinese Empire when Orchid, a beautiful 17-year-old from an aristocratic but impoverished family, finds herself unexpectedly chosen to become a lower-ranking concubine of the emperor. Inside the Forbidden City jealousies and foul play abound, but Orchid is determined to survive. Little does she know that China will collapse around her and that she will be its last empress....

At the end of the 19th century, China is rocked by humiliating foreign attacks and local rebellions. The only constant is the power wielded by one woman: the resilient, ever-resourceful Tzu Hsi, also known as Empress Orchid. Moving from the intimacy of the concubine quarters into the spotlight of the world stage, Orchid makes a dramatic metamorphosis from a strong-willed young woman to a wise political leader.

Reeling from tragedy, Orchid reluctantly assumes greater power over late 19th-century China. And as her nation is divided by opposing factions, only she can keep China from tearing itself apart.