Dominic Hawke is a proud member of a well-respected family of London goldsmiths who’ve honed their craft for four generations. Like many goldsmiths, they also carry on a lucrative and trusted banking business. Spain plots to invade England, assassinate her queen and install the Catholic Mary of Scotland on the throne. Determined to protect his country from Spanish interference, Dominic is also an informant for Elizabeth Tudor’s Spymaster. When the Pope’s Venetian emissary deposits the funds to finance a Spanish invasion with the Hawkes, events are set in motion that will likely result in the Venetian’s execution. Things go awry when Dominic meets and falls in love with the emissary’s daughter. A man smugly proud of his prodigious sexual appetite and imbued with an innate desire to dominate in the bedroom, he doubts the haughty and spoiled Luisa Bertolli would ever bend to his will. Even if she isn’t involved in her father’s plot, the innocent often do not escape torture and execution. Unaware of her father’s involvement in treasonous activities, Luisa cannot understand her craving for a London goldsmith who lives in a cramped apartment above his shop. Venetian noblewomen are destined to marry wealthy Venetian men. She begins to suspect Dominic is somehow involved in her father’s affairs and doesn’t doubt that he craves sexual dominance—something she could never agree to. It becomes clear the goldsmith is using her to entrap her father. Both their lives are at risk in the deadly game of intrigue orchestrated by the Queen’s notorious Spymaster, Francis Walsingham.

Like his father and brother before him, Julian Hawke is a well-respected London goldsmith—and an informant for Elizabeth Tudor’s Spymaster. But he craves the challenge of a more significant role in espionage. As part of a plan to trap the imprisoned Mary of Scotland in treasonous activities, he is sent to France as a double agent. His mission is to deliver false documents to the exiled Thomas Morcant, one of the Scottish queen’s stalwart supporters and a suspect in the attempted murder of Julian’s brother. Things go awry in Paris when Julian meets Morcant’s sister. He is drawn to her but assumes she has come to France as a courier for Mary. Lydia Morcant has traveled to Paris in a last-ditch effort to dissuade her older brother from involvement in the plot to put the Scottish queen on the English throne. She finds herself falling for Julian Hawke but, when she discovers he has met with her brother, fears he must be a courier for the traitors plotting Elizabeth’s overthrow. Untangling the web of intrigue in which they are mired could implicate them both in the deadly plot to assassinate Elizabeth Tudor and lead to arrest and execution.

Benedict Hawke, son of Dominic and Luisa from Book One, comes of age and feels the need to branch out from his father's goldsmithing enterprise. He has acquired the skills to operate a successful business on his own, but he lives in challenging times. The Bubonic Plague rages in the parishes outside London, Queen Elizabeth's popularity is waning as she ages and uncertainty regarding her succession is on everyone's mind. Embroiled in this turmoil and confused about his own reluctance to follow in his father's footsteps as a sexual dominant, he meets Madeline Traverne. Born in France but raised in India by an abusive father involved in diamond mining, Madeline is the widow of a wealthy Indian maharajah. She and an elderly Dutch diamond merchant form a partnership to sell diamonds to London merchants at a time when the nobility is clamoring to acquire the dazzling gems. The Hawkes intend to take advantage of this trend. Benedict is intrigued by Madeline, though he should be shocked by her blatant sexual interest in him. She recognizes from her late husband's teachings that he is the man who can provide what is missing in her life. She has success and wealth but lacks passion and love.