As Anne Boleyn’s blood is sluiced from the scaffold, Thomas Cromwell picks his way through the wreckage of her death to take his place as principal councillor to King Henry VIII.

As the dissolution of the monasteries gathers speed, Cromwell makes a personal pilgrimage to Shaftesbury Abbey to speak with a young nun, who profoundly shakes his view of himself.

Cromwell is stripped of his titles and brought to the Tower of London on a charge of treason. He has no friends to speak for him but plenty of enemies among his prosecutors.