Chronicles the seventeenth-century life of James, King of Scots, describing his childhood in Scotland, his ascension to the throne, and his efforts to translate the Bible from Latin into accessible English.
Frances has learned to use flowers and herbs to become a healer, but the King's court sees witchcraft punishable by death. Forcibly brought to the castle, Francis is surrounded by danger with a dark campaign gathering to destroy Parliament. She finds happiness only with the King's daughter and a mysterious courtier, who may not be what he seems.
Recreates the events surrounding the seventeenth-century Gunpowder Plot in which Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes, and other English Catholics conspired to blow up the House of Parliament and King James I in an effort to reintroduce Catholicism as the state religion.
Discusses some of the major issues of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the effect King James I of Great Britain had on these issues both during his reign and after.
After losing his mother, young John Saturnall is taken in by a nobleman and apprenticed to the kitchens where he uses his love of cooking to win over the daughter of the Lord of the Manor, and the two stuggle to stay together during the English Civil War.
