June 22, 1911. As George V ascends to the throne of Great Britain, Billy Williams, a child of Welsh coal miners, begins his first day's work in the depths of the earth... Love and hatred will fatefully connect the Williamses with the aristocratic and powerful Fitzherbert family, owners of the mines: Ethel, Billy's sister, falls in love with the Earl Fitzherbert, violating moral and class barriers.

But Lady Maud, the Earl's sister, also treads on dangerous ground as she is captivated by the fascinating Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London... Their lives will be intertwined with the destinies of three other people: Gus Dewar, an ambitious young advisor to the American President, and the Peskov siblings from Russia, whose dream of immigrating to America is lost in the turmoil 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 powerful, 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 giant fresco that through the story of its distinct, captivating heroes depicts the great adventure of the 20th century...