In this fantasy of manners we have two displaced young kings, one shopkeeper's daughter who went away an ugly duckling and returns five years later a beautiful and highly skilled swan, and a young queen who is master of all she surveys . . . until she isn't. The result is the last summer of love and adventure on the eve of cataclysm.

The Wicked Skill, from a poem by John Donne, duels and dances with discovery of the many facets of love-set against a background of revolution, one conducted through manners, the other by swashbuckling youths who think life is a game . . .