In May 1536, Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, and five of her accomplices were dead. As the axe fell, Thomas Cromwell emerged from the bloody massacre to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry, lived a short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, a man with only his head to rely on, had no extended family to support him and no private army. In this cruel and bloody era, Cromwell faced a moral complexity while exercising power, and he was caught in a dilemma: on the one hand, the desire to do the right thing, on the other hand, the instinct to survive. But after Henry VIII executed his queen, no one was safe. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad, and the threat of invasion pushing Henry's regime to the brink of collapse, Cromwell's powerful imagination saw a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England was at his feet, and the time was ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as the wheel of fate turned, Cromwell's enemies were gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: How long can anyone survive under Henry's cruel and erratic gaze?