In this biographical series that begins in 1784, twenty-one-year-old George, Prince of Wales-- the eldest son of King George III and heir to the British throne-- spends his youth idly by keeping countless mistresses, drinking profusely, and making friends with the radical Whig Opposition, much to the dismay of his father and the conservative Tories. While the Prince of Wales is handsome, witty, and intelligent, he is also vain, haughty, and melodramatic. However, his Whig friends overlook his vices in the hopes that their political alliance with him will one day be in their favor, as they hope to one day retake the government from the Tories. The Prince of Wales gets himself into even more difficulties with an illegal marriage, accumulating debts, and an evermore distant relationship with his parents. This finally culminates in the Regency Crisis of 1788: when King George III suffers through a serious mental illness, the Prince of Wales' true disposition is finally revealed before the public eye.
Towards the end of the 19th century, this novel follows the burning love between Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of Queen Victoria, and James Lee Stephens; a young brown-skinned commoner boy. The book explores the inseparable couple's coming of age stories starting in their college days.
Being an exceedingly intellectual individual, the prince unsurprisingly attended the renowned English college of Oxford University in 1874. Trying to lead an ordinary life, the prince's great downside was living with hemophilia; a disease where any injury to the body can cause excessive bleeding and fatal consequences. It's known the semesters at Oxford University were some of Leopold's most brilliant days, though history does not document the romantic, blossoming, and passionate love that he shared with his classmate, James Stephens.
James, a regular commoner of the United Kingdom, compared to Leopold has more freedom to live life and is not weighed down by the scrutiny of his mother nor the burden of disease. Having a privileged life, equally as intelligent as his classmates at Oxford, and a promising future, James still deals with the regular hardships of being colored in Victorian England.
When meeting one another, the pair have a seemingly impossible relationship not only because of class barriers, but race, and sexuality. Growing a deep admiration for one another over the years they come to know each other, their relationship must always remain unavowed to everyone. This warming, tenderhearted novel follows the 11 years the couple has to battle between longing for one another and hiding their affections.