The Qin dynasty's final years had arrived, and the people had suffered under its rule for far too long. Chen An, an orphan, is caught up in an undeserved calamity and sentenced to penal labor, then sent north to build the Great Wall. After witnessing the empire's tyranny, the officials' cruelty, and the people's suffering, he goes from merely trying to survive to wondering, “Are kings and generals born to their stations?”
With extraordinary resilience, intelligence, and strategic skill, he steadily finds his footing amid the chaos. He must establish himself in the surging peasant rebellions, deal with powerful men of the age such as Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, and face the overwhelming power of the eunuch faction led by Zhao Gao in the heart of the empire, Xianyang Palace. Chen An makes the world his chessboard and takes the people as his responsibility. He rises amid the turmoil and brings the dark era of eunuch rule to an end with his own hands.
