1558. Elizabeth, the last of King Henry's heirs, is a traitor's daughter. Now, she is England's last hope. After five gruesome years, Bloody Mary is on her deathbed. She lives her sister Elizabeth a daunting inheritance: the throne of England. The bishops will not anoint a heretic. A foreign queen plots for the throne. And Englishmen and foreigners alike are starting to notice Elizabeth's growing infatuation for a man who spent his youth in a traitor's cell. And the people demand a prince to fill the empty throne by Elizabeth's side: a husband that may wrest away every morsel of her power. Tides are turning in England, and no one is safe. Not even the queen.