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Chronicles five hundred years of adultery in European monarchy, discussing how royal mistresses influenced every aspect of European history, and profiling notable women and the kings who loved them.

Offers a biography of Louis XIV that focuses on his relationships with women, discussing his mother, wives, mistresses, liaisons, and children.

Yashim Togalu, nineteenth-century eunuch and imperial investigator, inquires into a wave of murders in Istanbul, Turkey, and uncovers the revival of the Janissaries, the Ottoman military force abolished ten years earlier, who are planning to overthrow the government.

In autumn, 1558, Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth, is crowned Queen of England. Crucial to her success is Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who has been her supporter (and some say her lover) during her struggle for the throne. In an age where women were thought to be unable to govern on their own, Elizabeth is urged to marry soon so England can finally have peace. However, the one man she desires is Robert Dudley who is already married to Amy, a wife who will not let him fulfill his ambitions at her expense. As Robert begins to court Elizabeth he asks himself whether it will be possible to put his wife aside to marry a queen.

In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen. One woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth's ambitious leap to the throne will draw her husband back to the center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be. Elizabeth's excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country where treason is rampant and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisor William Cecil warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the ambitious Robert Dudley. As the young couple falls in love, a question hangs in the air: can he really set aside his wife and marry the queen? When Amy is found dead, Elizabeth and Dudley are suddenly plunged into a struggle for survival.