In this story Min tries to cast a sympathetic light[citation needed] on one of the most controversial political figures in the People's Republic of China.

[1] Madame Mao is born to a very poor family around 1910 (early enough to have had her feet bound although due to a severe infection the bindings were taken off).

Using the stage name Lan Ping, she spends a few years in Shandong province (where she becomes a Communist due to a lover of hers) and then Shanghai.

After what seems like a string of rejections as well as a few serious lovers and two husbands, she travels to Yan'an, Mao's revolutionary base, to become part of his movement.

Finally, Lan becomes pregnant and Mao is allowed to divorce He Zizhen and marry her, under the condition that she stay out of the public eye and is not involved in politics at all.

She sees a glimmer of opportunity at Mao's low point—two years after the launch of the Great Leap Forward which proved disastrous.

She begins slowly to reemerge from the shadows and spends some time in Shanghai building up a network of actors and producers (her great passion is still opera and theater).

Finally, in 1966 she is actually allowed to make an important speech and helps Mao develop the concepts behind the Cultural Revolution.

Madame Mao, as she is now called, organizes festivals for revolutionary plays and begins to work closely with the student movements which have always been so important in China.

Finally, Mao and Jiang decide to launch a student-led army called the Red Guards that she would be in charge of.

The Red Guards end up having more power than the official military for a number of years and wreak havoc throughout the country.

Her relationship with Mao is no longer romantic in the least but is mutually beneficial: 'For him, it is the security of his empire that she aids and for her, the role of a heroine.

When Mao's will is eventually found, he has named Hua Guofeng, a provincial governor from his home province, as his successor.

[1] Publishers Weekly stated that it is a "spellbinding", "highly dramatic, psychologically penetrating and provocative narrative" that is "foremost a character study" of Jiang Ching.

[2] Kirkus Reviews stated that the novel, despite the author's skill in creating "A remarkable act of historical imagination", "never truly captures Jiang Ching’s character.