The author explores in this book the rise of Lady Wu to become Emperor of China. She was to reign, in China's 5,000 years of recorded history, as the only female "Son of Heaven", supreme as Emperor. The author focuses on the working of Lady Wu's mind in the process of an uphill struggle to overcome impossible odds. From a lowly maid doing palace chores, she rose to become Emperor. Her success story should be a beacon to modern women lost in their own struggles to rise above the tide of men.