The Film reenacts the story of Aimee du Buc de Rivery, the cousin of Empress Josephine and sister of another future French queen, who was captured by Barbary pirates in the late 18th century, sold as a harem concubine, and eventually rose to power as the consort of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid I and later Valide Sultan to his son, Mahmud II. However-- and the film does not mention this --there is, in fact, no firm historical evidence for this legend.