London, 1501. In a time of political unrest, Varina Westcott, a young widow and candle maker, agrees to perform a clandestine service for Queen Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII -- carve four wax figures, two of her offspring lost in infancy and two of her brothers, the Princes of the Tower, who disappeared mysteriously years ago. Having lost a child herself, Varina feels a sympathetic bond with the queen. And as she works under the watchful eye...

Born into a first family in Ireland, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, known as Gera, finds her world overturned when Henry VIII imprisons her father and destroys her family; Gera, who dares not deny the refuge offered her in England's royal court, nurtures her secret desire for revenge.