In 1651 the young King Charles II fights to regain his crown, and leads an army to Worcester, where he suffers a disastrous defeat. In his flight to safety, he is sheltered by a young pregnant widow, whose late husband was the rumored bastard of his grandmother. He vows to protect her and her unborn child when he regains the throne.Upon his Restoration he seeks out his savior, only to find she is dead, leaving behind a daughter named Lisette. Charles takes her as his ward and brings her to Court. Nine-year old Lisette Gordon is uprooted from a God-fearing home to be raised in the bawdy-house known as Whitehall Palace, where she becomes the mistress to both the King and his bastard son Jamie. After rebelling against the amoral ways of the Court, Charles sends her back to her home near Dover, where she finds true love in Angus Gordon. The lovers must struggle to maintain their love through many tribulations, including the continuing obsession of Jamie with Lisette and her addiction to laudanum.