After the final defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the great naval battle of Lepanto, it seems that Europe is safe. But one day Nicholas Ingoldsby is summoned to London for an audience with the Queen herself. He is to go on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople, the heart of the old enemy - and then onward, to a little-known but rising power called Muscovy. Here the Russian Czar has just proposed marriage to Elizabeth herself. Such a bold offer should...