Midwife Clare Dupres and her precocious daughter Lucina cause unpopular King James II to lose the English throne in 1688. Clare Dupres bravely faces a new life for herself and her children, after narrowly escaping to England, leaving captured Papa behind in Normandy. Grateful to brother-in-law Pierre for inviting them to share his home, Clare fails to recognize that his attentions towards her exceed the bounds of brotherly affection, ignoring perceptive Lucina's warnings. Pierre's childless wife Celia, jealous of Clare, becomes obsessed with the idea that she would be a better mother to Lucina and Jean-Pierre, and wishes her nemesis would disappear. Barred from practicing midwifery in London, Clare moves with her children to a country village, next door to Pierre and Celia. Before leaving the city, ignoring warnings that the English do not want a Papist heir to their throne, Clare befriends the royal midwife and offers to help King James' barren wife. Lucina proposes a shocking procedure which Clare secretly tests on the queen. This leads to birth of a healthy male heir, causing royal upheaval. Lucina, a gifted youngster who quotes Shakespeare, thrives in the genteel country society and enjoys writing theatricals to entertain her new friends. But caught in the struggle between Aunt Celia's goal to teach her ladylike skills and Clare's insistence she study midwifery, Lucina is conflicted. When she saves her old friend Daphne in Normandy from a disastrous fate by sending mind messages to Chateau Montjardin, Lucina believes she has developed the power to alter the future. As the years pass, a series of disasters force Lucina to come to terms with her own destiny as the plot takes unexpected twists and turns towards a stunning, surprise conclusion.