In the decades following the deposition of James IV, his descendants and relatives continue the struggle to survive clan MacCarthy's plots. Katherina Rourke loses everything except her close-knit group of friends when first her mother, Iron Kate, then her father Matthew (formerly Donal IV) are murdered. Later her friendships disintegrate, and a subsequent donal uses Sean Reilly to kill Katherina, Jack, and their infant Mara. Or, does he? We follow Lady Katherina to and through the battle of Glenmorgan. An intertwined story tells of Sean Reilly (the man she once loved but now hates) and his allies in their quest to depose the corrupt donal. A third and later sequence relates the coming to age of Katherina's daughter, as she builds The Friends of the Day, dedicated to restoring Tara's true throne. London, Moody, Tara, and Penal City are the stages on which these stories play out toward the 2000 nexus and the 2001 culmination of the ban on the throne.