November 1918. Istanbul, the legendary city, is subjected to the relentless occupation of the Allies, victors of the Great War. On the banks of the Bosphorus, between East and West, painful choices must be made. Leyla Hanim is the young wife of a secretary to Sultan Mehmet VI. Her mother-in-law is a freed Circassian slave from the imperial harem.
November 1918. Istanbul, the mythical city, is subjected to the intractable occupation of the Allies, victors of the Great War. On the banks of the Bosphorus, between East and West, painful choices must be made.
Leyla Hanim is the young wife of a secretary to Sultan Mehmet VI. Her mother-in-law, a freed Circassian slave from the imperial palace, forces her to adhere to ancestral customs. But when their home is requisitioned by a French officer and his family, this well-ordered life is shattered. Meanwhile, Commander Louis Gardelle succumbs to the alluring temptations of the cosmopolitan city teeming with White Russians fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution. For the Turks who refuse to accept the disintegration of their country, the time for resistance has come. Encouraged by her brother, Leyla joins the fight despite her fear of the unknown and her husband's position. Her encounter with Hans Kästner, a Berlin archaeologist loyal to General Mustafa Kemal, transforms her life. The Anatolia of the rebels then becomes the backdrop for a forbidden love.
In the light of revolutions and at the dawn of a modern world, the new Turkey emerges from the Ottoman ashes, while a young woman discovers the sometimes bitter taste of independence and freedom.
