When history breeds five kings in fifty years, the chronicle of royal succession teems with blood feuds and grim warfare. Eleventh- century England offers such a tale for its first half is clotted with contenders for the throne. From this snarl of kings and conspirators emerge a boy, who waits thirty- eight years to be King, and his mother, who spends a lifetime thwarting him.

Emma of Normandy should have been born a man for she desires no less than to be King. Instead she must content herself to marry monarchs and to bear future kings. But neither marriage nor motherhood suits the defiant beauty. The Queen's infidelities and political meddling keep her in perpetual exile and block her eldest son's succession to the throne. Yet Fate decrees that this son, the "albino monster" Edward, will be King. It is Emma's folly to defy his destiny.

Edward knows he is ugly. He knows his mother despises his homeliness and violent seizures. But unlike the Queen who ignores the soothsayers she patronizes, Edward believes the prophecy that promises him England. While Emma surrenders herself to the Danish usurper in order to breed a more desirable heir, Edward, in exile, waits with patience befitting the saint he aspires to become. Four kings rise and fall before the chaste and religious eccentric ascends the throne. And still his mother will no acknowledge him.

Thus conflict between mother and son complicates a confused political time when would- be rulers, bastard sons, and upstart noblemen create a chaos of kings. It is a turbulent, barbaric age in which the course of history is changed by a haunting moment. A young boy witnesses the seduction of his mother... and nothing is ever the same again.