England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his twenty-year marriage and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell, a wholly original man implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, yet what will be the price of his triumph?