In 1483, John Collan's greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village's devilish goat on his way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger upends his life forever: John discovers he is not the son of a farmer but Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, and has been hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown. But now the time has come for him to take his place as rightful heir to the throne and overthrow Henry VII, the first Tudor king. Abruptly removed from his humblr origins, John is put into play by his masters: learning Latin in Oxford, aristocratic manners in Burgundy, and courtly machinations in Ireland. There he encounters Joan, the delightfully strongwilled and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available to her: marry or become a nun. Lambert's choices are similarly stark: He will either become king or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.
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