England, 1587. The country has survived an outbreak of the plague and now faces the threat of insurrection. The Catholics wish to install Mary Stuart, the legitimate grand-niece of Henry VIII, on the throne and rid themselves of the heretic and bastard queen, Elizabeth.

Friedrich Schiller, Germany’s Shakespeare, has written one of the great tragedies of dramatic literature by imagining the last year in the life of Mary. She has endured two decades of captivity; been tried by an English court, whose authority she does not recognize; and begged for an audience to appeal the verdict before her cousin and sister-queen, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth must navigate a treacherous terrain of political intrigue and manipulation while facing the increasing threat of a Spanish invasion. She has never desired the death of her cousin Mary, but to preserve her monarchy and fulfill her ambition, to secure her nation’s future, she may see no alternative.

Is Mary the arch villain, who had her husband murdered and now leads the insurrection against Elizabeth, or is she the victim of a power struggle between warring religious and political factions?