On the run with the wife of a West Country mason, Raymond, a wandering minstrel, joins the forces massing to challenge the reign of Richard of York. His bravery in fighting for Henry Tudor's cause begins a tradition in which he and his family bedome loyal and true servants to those who guide England through the sixteenth century.

Raymond's son devotes his life to Katherine of Aragon, supporting her through good times and bad, and living to tell her tragic story. He marries only after her death, and his daughter attends Anthony Babington, from his auspicious childhood, through his own service to Mary Queen of Scots, up to - and beyond - his fateful plot to rise up against the oppression of Catholics in Elizabethan England.