After avenging the death of his mother, Prince Jonsan goes mad and becomes a tyrant. He has young girls kidnapped from all the provinces so they can become his concubines. Simple village girls as well as the daughters of disobedient ministers, all of them have to undergo instruction in sexual practices and are subjected to a degrading series of tests that only one of them will pass – the one who will give birth to the king’s heirs. But in reality this depraved ruler and his kingdom are controlled by his advisor and childhood friend Soong-jae, who desires social status for himself and his father. When he falls in love with one of the concubines he is regarded as a traitor, and so the man who made the prince a king becomes the most important of the rebels. This visually opulent and epic story about the lust for power boasts a carefully constructed visual composition in which the classical tragedy of palace intrigue is combined with a study of passion and obsession. More than a crowd-pleasing costume drama, the film is, above all, an original, sophisticated, and timeless story of love, jealousy and betrayal.