A hasty departure from Scotland, where the English peril preyed continuously on the infant Catholic queen, and a voyage to France into a hotbed of court intrigue - these were the formative years of Mary Stewart, which led to her betrothal at the age of five to the frail Dauphin, Francis. His early death came as a great sorrow to Mary, but as cruel triumph to his mother, Catherine de Medici. Mary's early life and the political wrangling in France are vividly related to Jean Plaidy, and when Mary, widowed and torn between her love for France and duty to Scotland, returns to the land which she last saw as a little girl, a revealing light is shed on her troubled life as Mary, Queen of Scots.