In the royal palace, during preparations to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth I, two of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting are murdered. In one of them, a wax doll with red hair—an image of the Queen—is clenched in her hand. It is 1583—the year of the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, heralding a смена епох. Prominent Catholics are plotting to overthrow the not-so-young childless monarch and crown Mary Stuart. Brilliant Giordano Bruno, hiding from the Inquisition in England, tries to uncover their conspiracy and find the killer who dares to shed blood right at the very foot of the English throne.