Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn stars in an epic, true story of two women--queens, cousins and mortal enemies--each devout in her belief that she is the savior of England: Elizabeth I and Mary of Scotland. England, 1558. As the Reformation and Counterreformation battle across Northern Europe, killing thousands in a war for men's souls, the English throne faces a crisis of succession: both Protestant Elizabeth I (Florence Eldridge) and Catholic Mary Stuart (Hepburn), queen of France and Scotland, claim the throne. Elizabeth is the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; Mary is descendant of Henry VII. In this struggle, the winner will decide the future of England and Europe; the loser will suffer beheading. But even to the end, the regal Mary refuses to renounce either her throne or her religion.