As she states in her "Author's Note", Fraser aims to test the truth or falsehood of the many legends on Mary and to set her in the context of the age in which she lived.

Fraser stresses what she sees as Mary's key virtues but believes that Scotland at the time required an extraordinarily strong ruler to pull the nobles into line.

The book dismantles several myths and popular legends that have sprung up about Mary during and after her lifetime.

Fraser recounts the circumstances on the plot to murder Mary's second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in detail.

At the Conference of York, Regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, produced the casket letters, presented as love letters from Mary to her third husband, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, with whom she had allegedly plotted to kill Darnley.