A dramatic history of Aisin-Gioro "Henry" Pu Yi, who at the age of three became the last of the Emperors of China. Chronicles his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, as the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; and his exploitation by the invading Japanese as the ruler of Manchukuo from 1932 to 1945. He returned to public life in 1959, just another peasant worker in the People's Republic, and died as a gardener at the Botanical Gardens of Peking.