Playing the role of a layabout with no official titles or duties, Ko Sing acts as a trouble shooter within the palace, allowing plotters and malcontents to underestimate him until it is too late.

Finding the Empress's arrangements not to his liking Qianlong becomes besotted with Yu-yee (Tavia Yeung), a newly arrived servant girl in the palace, and demands that Ko Sing help bring her to him.

Unwilling to become the play thing of the Emperor, Yu-yee escapes from the palace but in doing so falls into the hands of slavers who sell her on to a brothel.

Meanwhile, So Sam's tragic past and her dedication to saving young girls is revealed when she is accused of murder.

Knowing that such an arrangement will damage the reputation of the Empire and the Emperor's ability to rule, the Empress and Ko Sing plot to free the girls from the palace.