When Henry VIII dies, leaving behind his nine-year-old son as his heir, a deadly series of power struggles begins, transforming the lives of two women. Joan Dudley's husband, the Duke of Northumberland, becomes the most powerful man in England, while Frances Grey perchs with her daughter Jane dangerously close to the throne. But when Mary Tudor asserts her own right to the crown, Frances and Joan find that the lives of their husbands and children are in mortal danger. The story of the women behind the crowning of Jane Grey, this novel is an illuminating tale of ambition gone awry.