At the height of ancient Persia, lovely Hadassah grows up in Susa, capitol of the empire, sheltered under the watchful eye of her Uncle Mordecai, a scribe in the royal palace. Orphaned by the murder of her parents at a young age, she spends her days reading to the local children and dreaming of returning to Israel, the homeland of her people.

Unbeknownst to Hadassah and Mordecai, Haman the Agagite, descendant of the Jews mortal enemy and the man responsible for the slaughter of her parents, capitalizes on a palace culture beset by treachery and intrigue, setting in motion a series of events that will bring about a centuries old blood quest to destroy the Jews. Using the ruthless plotting of the princes to his advantage, Haman baits them into trapping King Xerxes into banishing the Queen for her stance against a looming war with Greece.

With the King left alone and desperate to live up to and avenge the battles of his father, the princes press upon Xerxes that a king soon to depart for war must leave behind a queen to keep the people unified. Thus word is sent out and every young maiden through out the empire, including Hadassah, is rounded up and taken into the palace for a season of preparation before being presented before the King.

Warned by Mordecai to keep her Jewish identity a secret, Hadassah changes her name to Esther and adapts quickly to life as a Queen’s candidate. Her innocence makes an immediate impression on Hegai, the King’s royal eunuch assigned to oversee the candidates’ preparations. While the rest of the harem plot and scheme over the potential riches that lay before them, Esther wins favor by seeking not what she can gain, but what stirs the passions of the King himself

Like a fairy tale come true, Esther’s intelligence and wonder capture the heart of the King like no woman ever has. But becoming Queen is nothing like she dreamed. She quickly finds herself in a dangerous world of politics when a plot is discovered to poison the king. This is only the beginning, however, for just as Esther has risen to favor and honor, so too has Haman, who through a series of Machiavellian double crosses, has maneuvered himself into the powerful position of being named Prince. Now with the war against Greece in jeopardy due to a shortage of funding, Haman launches his ultimate plan, convincing the King that the necessary funding can be raised by the slaughter of the Jews and the confiscation of their wealth and property.

Meanwhile, Esther discovers that Haman was indeed the one who killed her parents, but finds herself helpless to do anything to stop him. Her own relationship with the ever-more-paranoid Xerxes has crumbled to pieces due to her inability to disclose the secret of her background and she is dangerously close to seeing the former Queen’s fate befall herself.

With time running out, and Haman himself becoming more suspicious of her secret, Mordecai informs Esther that the Jews only hope is for her to risk her life and go before the King unsummoned (a crime punishable by death) to intercede for her people. It is then that Esther utters those fateful words that have rung through out the centuries, "If I perish, I perish," as she races off with one last chance to save her people.

©2006 Gener8xion Entertainment. All rights reserved.

                                               MORE REVIEWS >>>