Seven hundred years before Christ was born, the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, presided over the greatest empire that had ever been. In this story of Naqia, his favourite wife, we are caught up in the turbulent sweep of history, the treachery and the valour and the ordinary lives of those who were connected with her. From the humblest hut to the glorious palaces, we enter a world both foreign in its culture and familiar in its humanity. Through it all, Naqia grows in confidence. Starting as a mere chattel before being pledged to the goddess Ishtar, she later becomes the most powerful woman of her time.