It's 15th Century London and through a quirk of fate young widow Janet Evershed finds herself running her late husband's cloth business, far from her York home. It's in this very shop that she meets Richard Neville, Duke of Warwick and his ward Edward, Earl of March. They may be much higher than commoner Janet but she has caught Edward's eye and what Edward wants, he gets, be it a woman or, indeed, the crown of England.
Janet Evershed was the daughter of the Mayor of York, a successful and well-regarded mercer. But Janet's life didn't follow the usual pattern for a well brought-up girl. Due to a series of unexpected events she became a very young widow running her own growing business in London; the mistress of the charismatic king; and an exile in the Low Countries with her life inextricably entwined with those of the Princes in the Tower. They were all sons of York ? Edward IV, Richard III, their brother George and all their children. Janet was not part of the elite, glittering court. She was both a bystander and a part of their lives.