Red-haired beauty Barbara Villiers comes to London. Here she, without hiding from human eyes, experiences her first stormy romance with Lord Philip Chesterfield. Her lover leaves her; she seeks oblivion in marriage, but finds it... in the arms of Charles II, whose return to the English throne she herself contributed to a large extent. Marriage with Catherine, Princess of Portugal, affairs with ladies-in-waiting - nothing can distract the king from Barbara for long. The heroes of the novel survive the great London fire of 1666, the plague epidemic that swept England, the war with Holland. Over all the trials that befell Charles and Barbara, Royal passion continues to reign over the ordinariness of everyday life.