The series fictionalizes the major events that marked the last 13 years of the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from its capital, the payitaht, from a historical revisionist perspective.

It depicts the political developments following the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 by referring to the dissident Young Turks, who were constitutionalists, and the Freemasons, who are the subject of many conspiracy theories.

Sultan Abdül Hamid changed the fortune of the Ottoman Empire, who had not been victorious in the last two centuries, and won the Greek War.

While Parvus is struggling to end the Payitaht with agents spread all over Istanbul under the leadership of Marco, his right-hand man, Sultan Abdülhamid's extraordinary and successful nephew, Murad, fights with his team at the expense of their lives.

At the end of the season, Bidar Sultan, who left the palace, has an accident and her carriage falls down a cliff, severely injuring her.

During the celebration, Zülüflü İsmail Pasha is revealed to be the elder brother of Sultan Abdülhamid, surprising everyone including the enemies.

However, one of Hechler's men arranges an assassination for the Sultan and shoots at him with a sniper which injures Ahmed Pasha (not shown) and the season ends there.

Sultan Abdülhamid's older brother Murad V passes away, leaving behind an heir that will take his place in the Freemasons, which he left in his will in the form of a composition.

It is revealed that Tahsin Pasha was dismissed and given a secret duty to document all the events that took place in the Reign of the Sultan Abdülhamid.

It is told that they spoke about the reasons for Ottomans Joining WW1, and also about certain fortifications made by the Sultan to prevent European entry into the capital.

The season and series ends with Sultan Abdülhamid's dream of walking down a long hall seeing the great previous Ottoman rulers.

According to an opinion piece from staff members of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies published on The Washington Post, the series allegedly promotes an "antidemocratic", "antisemitic" and "conspiratorial" worldview, opining that the show depicts that "a free press, secularism and democracy are the work of foreign powers, religious minorities, and godless liberals, and ultimately serve to erode national identity, honor, and security.

"[3] Ritman and Galuppo stated that the television series portrays Abdülhamid "as a noble leader forced to do what he must to protect the Ottoman Empire", at odds with the negative reputation with historians outside of Turkey for allowing the Hamidian massacres.

[4] Theodor Herzl, the liberal founder of modern Zionism, is one of the villains of the series who is portrayed as a man so perfidious as to hold his penniless father prisoner without his mother's knowledge because of alleged ideological differences.

The show depicts him at the First Zionist Congress, portrayed in such a way as to evoke the Elders of Zion, planning to create a Jewish state spanning from the Nile to the Euphrates,[3] which is a popular anti-Zionism conspiracy theory.

[3] The anti-Westernism present in the show's message has also been remarked upon,[3] as the production portrays "Jewish conspiracies" as melding together with the nefarious plots of the Catholic Church, Freemasonry, Britain as well as other Western powers, and the Young Turks into "one overarching scheme".

[3] The Washington Post's opinion piece noted that various actors in Turkey's political scene seemed to explicitly endorse the messages present in the show.

[3][5] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan praised the show's portrayals just two days before a referendum,[3] saying "the same schemes are carried out today in the exact same manner... What the West does to us is the same; just the era and actors are different".

[3][6] Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş lauded the show for "shedding light" on Sultan Abdulhamid's life in "an objective manner", and gave a personal visit to the set.

[8][9]Although Turkish soap operas are wildly popular in the Balkans, Payitaht: Abdülhamid has caused some controversy in places such as Kosovo due to its message and historical revisionism.