In sixteenth-century London, a playwright with a taste for wine and women is seduced into danger . . . Queen Elizabeth sits on the English throne and plague ravages the streets of the nation's capital. Against this backdrop, poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe struggles to complete his new play, Edward II—repeatedly succumbing to the more enjoyable distractions of drinking and gambling and not entirely trustworthy companions. But London's pleasures are not all that capture his attention. Though he fancies himself in love with the wife of his patron, Thomas Walsingham, a chance encounter with a mysterious woman propels his life down a different path—one that will ultimately lead to his end . . .

A historical novel inspired by the notorious pretender to the English throne who risked all to be known as Richard Plantagenet. Was Perkin Warbeck, as he claimed, Richard of York, son of King Edward IV, and the rightful heir to the throne won by Henry VII on Bosworth Field? Or was he simply another unscrupulous adventurer who reveled in the threat of rebellion, played for high stakes, and lost? This riveting novel explores one of the most fascinating personalities in English history, describing Perkin Warbeck's futile attempt to rouse the West Country against the king and his inevitable fate, as well as the tragic story of his wife, Lady Katherine Gordon—who, at the same time in love with and half-despising her husband, risked her freedom for him and found herself drawn remorselessly into the grim drama.