In the opening years of twentieth-century England, the illegitimate daughter of King Edward VII struggles to find her way in life and to establish her identity. Raised by an elderly couple, a tailor and his wife, far north of royal London in the country’s Lake District, Mary loses both foster parents at age sixteen and is put into service to Lord and Lady Lonsdale at Lowther Castle. But she yearns to better herself via her extraordinary singing voice, and when her employers refuse to support her singing, she launches out on her own and becomes involved in an inter­national intrigue that she could never have imagined. The surprising finish and the ultimate decision she makes prove her true metal and character.