June 22, 1911. As George V ascends to the throne of Great Britain, Billy Williams, a child from a family of Welsh miners, earns his first wage deep underground... Love and hatred will fatefully bind the Williams family to the aristocratic and powerful Fitzherbert family, who own the mines: Ethel, Billy's sister, falls in love with Count Fitzherbert, defying moral and class barriers.

But Lady Maud, the count's sister, also treads dangerous ground as she is captivated by the intriguing Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London... Their lives will be intertwined with the destiny of three more people: Gus Dewar, an ambitious young advisor to the American President, and the Peshkov brothers from Russia, whose dream of emigrating to America is shattered by the whirlwind of World War I and the October Revolution...

From the dark tunnels of the mines to the illuminated salons of the ruling class, from the battlefields to the corridors of power and the bedrooms of the mighty, from London to Petrograd, Washington, and Paris, Ken Follett weaves an epic novel that can only be compared to his masterpiece, The Pillars of the Earth.

The first part of a gigantic fresco that, through the story of its unique, fascinating heroes, depicts the great adventure of the 20th century itself...