No Smoke Without Flowers is inspired by the 19th Century Chinese opium dens known as Hua-yan jians, or flower-smoke rooms. The smoke was the intoxicating opium, the flowers the female courtesans. Courtships were lengthy and often expensive, with customers bestowing gifts of jewellery on their female counterparts. They survived only as long as they could charm. Some became Buddhist nuns at the end of their careers; tenacious others transformed themselves into noblewomen and even empresses.