Jane Grey was Queen of England for nine days before Mary Tudor mustered an army to depose her. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner's block. "Learn you to die," is the advice Jane leaves in a letter to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and fall in love, but Queen Mary and then Queen Elizabeth have no interest in letting their heir marry or produce a Tudor son.
When Katherine's pregnancy betrays her secret wedding, she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister's scaffold. "Farewell, my sister," writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful little person disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Queen Elizabeth ?