In late seventeenth century London two women, one white, one black, stake everything to prevent a manipulative mogul destroying them. Zenobia, born in poverty, grasps that her only hope of controlling her own life is to capitalise on her looks; Lily, brought to London on a sugar and slave ship as a "toy," educated alongside her mistress but used by her master, lives as a kept woman.
As their story weaves and folds through a murky and merciless...