Elizabeth Trentham, Countess of Oxford, begins her story as Lady of the Wardrobe to Queen Elizabeth. As such, she dresses the Queen with the help of Wrios, Earl of Southampton, who is rumoured to be one of the Queen's many sons; as indeed, it is his father, Beth's brilliant and eccentric husband Edward, Lord Oxford, who writes subversively and anonymously, attracting much enmity at Court. Desperate to have his plays performed and unable to publish under his own name, he borrows that of a minor player, Will Shaksper. With the spymaster Robert Cecil seeking to find and destroy Edward's incriminating works that could upend the succession itself, it lies with Beth to protect his work while drawn into a conspiracy from which there is no escape. Trying to save herself and all she holds dear, Beth pours her longing and her fear into writing poesy each midnight on her window ledge, beneath the stars. A dark tale of intrigue and rumour, incest and murder at the fascinating court of the greatest of Queens.