"I do not like the name Alexandrina. Now that I am queen, I have decided to be called by my second name, Victoria. This name is mine."

In June 1837, eighteen-year-old Victoria wakes up to learn that she is the queen of the most powerful nation in the world. But will she become a self-reliant queen or a puppet in the hands of her mother and the sinister Sir John Conroy? Can this petite girl stand up to men like her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who believes that women are too hysterical to rule? Everyone wants to see her married, but Victoria has no intention of entering into a marriage of convenience with her cousin Albert, a shy bookworm who, as far as she remembers, doesn't even know how to dance. She prefers to rule alone, with a little help from her prime minister, Lord Melbourne. He could be her father; he is the only man who believes she will become a great queen and knows how to make her laugh. A husband would be nothing but an obstacle...