Based on contemporary documents and histories, Roderick Graham paints a unique picture of Mary that sees her neither as a Catholic martyr, nor as a husband-murdering adulteress, but as a young girl adrift in the dangerous seas of sixteenth-century politics. Mary Stuart had none of the ruthlessness of her contemporary sisters, and the female empowerment of Catherine de Medici, Diane de Poitiers or Elizabeth Tudor passed her by.

In an age of intellectually brilliant and powerful women, Mary relied on her beauty and charm in place of reason and determination. Passively and gracefully, she allowed events to overtake her as accidents and when she did attempt to control her future she unwittingly set in train the events that would lead her to the executioner's block.