Istanbul in the 1920s. After the 1st World War, the years of occupation. A country and a city in poverty and hardship; Istanbul.
Mehmet Reşat Bey, the Minister of Finance, is an honest bureaucrat, an Ottoman intellectual, struggling with the burdens of his conscience, caught between loyalty to his Sultan and rebellion against those occupying his country.
Behice, the lady of the house, M. Resat's wife, and Valide Saraylı Hanım, who turns into a permanent guest in the mansion that seems to guarantee her eternal happiness.
The order in the house changes when Kemal, Mehmet Resat's nephew, suddenly comes home one day. Kemal is seriously ill. In World War 1, he fought in Sarıkamış, the front where the Ottoman Empire suffered the greatest losses, and it was learned that he had been taken prisoner, and he was never heard from again. Before enlisting as a volunteer in Sarıkamış, he had written articles against the Sultan and the government, lawsuits were filed against him and several arrest warrants were issued.
M. Resat does not want Kemal at home. Because Kemal is against the Sultan, to whom M. Resat is loyal.
Mrs. Saraylı will do her best to keep her grandson Kemal hidden at home until he recovers.
Mehpare is entrusted with Kemal's care. Mehpare is the daughter of a poor relative who grew up in the house of Mrs. Saraylı. The two young people fall in love. However, there are great obstacles to this love. For example, the possibility that Kemal has tuberculosis. Kemal is also a fugitive. It is uncertain when he will be free. And of course, Mehpare being the feeder of the house... No one will accept the love between the feeder and the young master of the house. Especially Kemal's grandmother Saraylıhanım.
While all this was going on, one day M. Reshat met an old acquaintance. 17-year-old Eirene, the neighbor girl he had left behind, a young and beautiful woman... While his wife is pregnant with their third child, he is caught between his heart and his mind.
Will Behice be able to protect her beloved husband, her mansion and her family?
Will time pave the way for Kemal and Mehpare? Can love be free in a captive city? Can M. Resat dream of freedom as part of a surrendered power? For his country, for himself... Can love bring freedom to a captive man?
