When 12-year-old Katherine Howard comes to live in the Duchess of Norfolks household poor relation Cat Tilney is deeply suspicious. The two girls couldnt be more different: Cat watchful & ambitious; Katherine interested only in clothes & boys. Their companions are in thrall to Katherine but its Cat in whom Katherine confides & despite herself Cat is drawn to her. Summoned to court at 17 Katherine leaves Cat in the company of her ex-lover Francis & the two begin their own much more serious love affair. Within months the king has set aside his Dutch wife Anne for Katherine. The future seems assured for the new queen & her maid-in-waiting although Cat would feel more confident if Katherine hadnt embarked on an affair with one of the kings favoured attendants Thomas Culpeper. However for a blissful year & a half it seems that Katherine can have everything she wants. But then allegations are made about her girlhood love affairs. Desperately frightened Katherine recounts a version of events which implicates Francis but which Cat knows to be a lie. With Francis in the Tower Cat alone knows the whole truth of Queen Katherine Howard
- but if she tells Katherine will die.