Born in an aristocratic family, a girl was kidnapped the day before her wedding by a captain of the imperial army and forced to follow his warfare without being able to see him. From the battlefields to the destroyed cities, she discovered the growing power of her husband and the changes of her life. Fallen into a world of hunger and disease, unexpectedly she was taken to the Forbidden City, then to the throne. She became the supreme empress of Southern China. Hundred years later, Shen Feng, a poor zither maker from the lowest class, broke into an imperial tomb and stole the precious sarcophagi. Back to his village, he started to carve a forgery of antique zither by using the sarcophagi wood. The ghost empress appeared to him and begged for his love. As the seven strings zither rattled and hummed, ancient cities, harbours, warriors, conspirators, poets, pirates flew out of the misty vastness of Yangtze River.