Darkness has descended over England. The reign of the usurper has brought it low, piling injustice upon injustice. This is the world Empress Maud sees and into which she enters, setting foot upon the sacred soil of England to overthrow King Stephen and regain the royal inheritance of her sons. It will be no easy task. The barons are keen to pursue their own advantage, playing one claimant to the throne off the other. Maud finds it necessary to ally with figures who offend her own moral principles, and she increasingly struggles to trust anyone...even those closest to her. A new ally - or perhaps an adversary - in the form of Bishop Henry of Winchester forces Maud to draw upon all her political knowledge to win the loyalty of the Church, but exercising power proves to be even more devilish than gaining it. At every turn, she is scorned by figures great and small on account of her sex, and the demons of her past continue to haunt her as she longs for freedom but finds herself always in chains. Controlling her own emotions will prove as difficult as controlling the kingdom. Set against the backdrop of the most tumultuous years of The Anarchy, this is the story of a woman whom destiny called to fight for the future of England. She will endure hunger and insults, the misfortunes of war and the scourge of fire as she struggles to discover who she truly is and what she is to England. This is a story of civil war and ultimately of a love so powerful that it would endure for all eternity.