Bourtai, a Manchu princess, is given as a bribe to the prominent Chinese general, Wu San Gui. During the tumultuous fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Qing Dynasty, the lives of Bourtai and Wu are entwined for both good and ill. Thomas Harper, the literary critic for The Alliance Review, declared that DeGrange's previous novel, The Ming Legacy, was "an intriguing mix --- of history, art and murder."