The central figure in this deeply interesting and moving narrative is the Manchu empress-dowager Tz'ŭ-Hsi, for many years (till her death in 1908) the de facto ruler of China. We see her here not as the august and awe-inspiring occupant of the Dragon throne, arbitress of the fates of a fifth of the world's population, the wife of one emperor and the mother of a second; for although in these pages she still plays the sinister role of judge and jaileress of a third emperor, she figures mainly as a scared and bewildered fugitive, a hungry and selfish old lady, amiable and urbane when things were going well with her, petulant and querulous when they went badly, and volcanic when the wisdom of any of her actions was called in question.