An orphaned girl enters the Joseon royal kitchens as the lowest of cooks and rises, through court poisonings, sabotage and exile to an island, to become the first woman ever to serve as physician to a king. It is built from a few lines in the royal annals that record a woman named Jang-geum and almost nothing else about her. Sold to more than ninety countries, it is the drama usually credited with carrying the Korean Wave beyond Asia.