Shakespeare, actor and renowned playwright, is contacted by Nicholas Skeres on behalf of members of an underground resistance movement who are plotting to overthrow the Spanish dominion of England and restore Elizabeth I to the throne.

To do this, they employ Shakespeare himself, tasking him to write a play depicting the saga of Boudicca, an ancient Iceni queen who rebelled against the Roman occupation of Great Britain in the 1st century A.D.

The plan is complicated by the Spaniards who, also recognizing Shakespeare's talents, commission him to write a play depicting the life of King Philip II of Spain and the Spanish conquest of England.

At the end of the story, Shakespeare uses his new status to facilitate the release of his friend Lope de Vega from English captivity, provided that he immediately return to the Continent.

[2] A short Turtledove story of time travel, "We Haven't Got There Yet" (based on Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), also features Shakespeare as the third-person narrator.

Conversely, In Turtledove's version the Spanish occupation of England proves but an ephemeral interlude, being overthrown after ten years, with Elizabeth restored to the throne and the Elizabethan Age resuming – different in detail but not in essence from actual history.