The year is 1539 and the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful at the moods of the ageing, sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry takes another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves. She has her own good reasons for agreeing to marry a man old enough to be her father, in a country where to her both language and habits are foreign. Although fascinated by the glamour of her new surroundings, she senses a trap closing around her. The story of three young women, trying to make their own way through the most volatile court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty, is Philippa Gregory's most compelling novel yet.