After the British and French allied forces burned down the Old Summer Palace, they forced the cowardly and incompetent Qing government to sign a series of unequal treaties. The arrogance in China was so great that the timid Qing Emperor Xianfeng (Tony Leung) hid in the Rehe Palace. In addition to the Queen (Chen Ye), the concubines who often appeared around Xianfeng were Concubine Li (Zhou Jie) and Concubine Yi (Liu Xiaoqing). Concubine Yi tried her best to please Xianfeng, but Concubine Li was obviously more favored by Xianfeng. On his 30th birthday, Xianfeng suddenly fell seriously ill. On his deathbed, the minister Su Qing (Xiang Kun) who wanted to usurp the throne privately suggested that Concubine Yi be executed and a young master be appointed because he saw that Concubine Yi was very scheming. Xianfeng thought it made sense at first, but after realizing that Su Qing had evil intentions, he verbally ordered him and seven other ministers to be regents to assist the young master, and gave the "Tongdaotang" seal to Concubine Yi, urging her and the Queen to work together to raise the young master. When Emperor Xianfeng was in mourning, Qing gave the empress and the imperial concubine the titles of Ci'an and Cixi, in an attempt to trick them into taking power, but he was ultimately defeated by Cixi. After finishing Qing, Cixi did not let Ci'an go.