Laredo, August 1496. A fleet of ships sets sail for Flanders taking Princess Joanna to the court of Brussels, where she is to marry the man later to become known as Philip the Handsome. At the meeting sparks fly. Simply looking at one another has the couple feeling irresistable attraction and desire. They throw their political commitments to the wind and give in to their emotions. But fate has other plans for them. The deaths of her elder brothers and of her mother Isabel the Catholic mean that Joanna is now the Queen of Castile and heir to the Crown of Aragón. These occurrences unleash two battles: one political, between the Flemish and Castilian nobilities; and the other, far more heartbreaking, which has to be fought by Joanna in the marital bed.