Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her, the story advances the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare's plays.
The relationship that botanist Angel establishes in his mind between plants, their stems, petals and pistils and the legs and feet of women, is the common thread of a plot that mixes sexual passion, love, greed and picaresque through a study of characters and situations.
