In 1558, relations between Spain and England are at the breaking point. The men in Queen Elizabeth's court should be thinking about how to add to the glory of the Elizabethan Age and how to foil those pesky Spanish who got far too much influence in England when her older sister Mary was on the throne after their father Henry VIII was succeeded by their sickly half brother. After a plot to depose her is discovered, she enlists Michael Ingolby, whose father was killed by the Inquisition, to go undercover and infiltrate the court of Philip of Spain. Elizabeth thinks Michael Ingolby can do great things. Michael is mostly thinking about one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting, Cynthia. Soon his mind is on survival when Elizabeth sends him on a voyage to Spain. Masquerading as one of the traitors, Ingolby finds the names of British subjects in Spanish pay. He identifies the would-be assassins and discovers their plans to send the Armada against England. His feats earn Ingolby the love of a Spanish noblewoman, an English courtesan, and Queen Elizabeth herself as he takes the British fleet into battle. At the climax he leads a night attack on the Armada ships massed off the coast of England.