John Peters is the dissolute Crown Prince of Bergeland. The nephew of the rapacious and immoral King. Grace Pellisier is an English American actress who meets a thoughtful, serious, hiker in the mountains of Switzerland. Bernhardt is the energetic Chief of the Secret Service, protecting the aging King, and constantly searching for The Watcher, the leader of the revolutionary republicans. Written during a period of intense anti-monarchy which saw the end of the Russian Tzar, Oppenheim is using the politics of Europe to imagine an alternative path to bloody revolution. And so on, and with the material of conspiracies, love and adventure the story is woven around the Prince with that peculiar polish in dialogue and fascinating coloring characteristic of the popular author.