When Aimee, an innocent young French girl, is captured by pirates and taken to Constantinople as a gift for the Sultan, she needs all her wits about her to survive the dangerous world of the harem and overcome the conspiracies of powerful enemies who are determined to prevent her son from becoming Sultan.

SYNOPSIS:

Aimee Dubucq de Rivery is a beautiful girl of privileged background, born in 1763 on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. At the age of twelve, she and her cousin Rose visit a fortune teller in the forest who predicts that Rose will marry an Emperor, and Aimee will be captured by pirates and spend the rest of her life in a splendid palace where she will give birth to a great ruler. Four years later, Aimee is sent to a convent in France to finish her education, accompanied by her faithful maid, Hannah, While returning home to Martinique in 1783, her ship is seized by Algerian pirates and Aimee is taken first to Algiers, then sent to Constantinople as a gift for Sultan Abdul Hamid I.

Initially in despair, Aimee gradually comes to recognise that the only way out of her terrible predicament is to turn her situation to her advantage. Guided and supported by Mihrisah, the previous Sultan's wife, she uses her courage, intelligence and charm to rise to the No 1 position in the harem, becoming Abdul Hamid's favourite and bearing him a son, Mahmud. However, Aimee and Mahmud are constantly plotted against by Sineperver, the Sultan's former favourite, who is desperate to put her own son Mustafa on the throne. She is supported by her lover, Commander Ahmed, leader of the Janissaries, the Sultan's fearsome fighting force. After Sultan Abdul Hamid's death, his nephew Selim becomes Sultan. Selim is educated and cultured, and he and Aimee fall in love. Selim is driven by a desire to reform the Ottoman state, in which he is opposed by Commander Ahmed and his Janissaries, who perceive Selim as weak and ineffectual.

With the help of the French, Selim succeeds in staving off an attack on Constantinople by the British. However, his days are numbered and he is cruelly murdered by Janissary assassins. Aimee and Mahmud are imprisoned and Mustafa becomes Sultan. But his triumph is short-lived. A Bulgarian commander, a former ally of the murdered Selim brings an army to Constantinople to avenge his death. Mahmud is rescued, and Mustafa taken prisoner and later put to death. Sineperver is banished. Mahmud becomes Sultan Mahmud ll, one of the greatest Ottoman Sultans. Sadly, Aimee falls ill and dies, but nine years later, Mahmud succeeds in crushing the Jannissaries, thus freeing Constantinople from their tyranny and opening up the way for much-needed reform.