The conspiracies of the empire

In Tang dynasty China, Empress Wu - seductive, ambitious and vindictive - rules with an iron fist. Her premier minister, Judge Dee Renjie, is honoured to be trusted by her. But when she orders him to carry out an urgent investigation into the disappearance of disgraced poet Luo Binwang, he can't see why the matter is of such vital importance. Luo Binwang joined a doomed uprising against Her Majesty, and vanished after the final, bloody battle. Is he missing - or dead? Either way, now that the rebellion has been mercilessly quashed, what harm could a poor, elderly poet do? Travelling out of the great capital of Chang'an, accompanied by his loyal manservant Yang, Judge Dee launches a painstaking investigation, in the hopes of achieving what the empress' secret police could not.