After a week in deepest Turkey, Alice arrives in Istanbul, where east meets west. Here she examines the creative tactics employed by the Ottomans to wrestle the supposedly impregnable city from the Romans and takes a boat ride on the Bosphorus to experience how the city was conquered. She also learns about the prolific architect Sinamand haggles with a rug seller in one of the world's largest bazaars.

Entering the Balkans by sleeper train, Alice makes her way through four countries as she follows in the footsteps of the Ottoman march across Europe. In Bulgaria's capital Sofia, she learns how the empire was controlled from Istanbul and how today the city's landscape is almost entirely Soviet. In Serbia, Alice encounters the shocking Skull Tower, once used as a grim warning for anyone who was thinking of rebelling.

In her final chapter Alice Roberts takes a train to the western point of the Ottoman Empire, Budapest to learn how it ended.