William Shakespeare leaves the small rural town of Stratford to pursue his dream of becoming a playwright in the dangerous, growing metropolis of London; public theatre is red-hot modernity and Shakespeare begins his journey at the very bottom.

A 30-year-old Shakespeare is at the top of his game -- he's got a job at England's best theater company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the money is rolling in; a tragedy leads to the creation of "Hamlet."

Shakespeare's life and legacy are threatened when the Gunpowder Plot unearths a secret he has worked all his life to bury; when his daughter is implicated in the fallout, Shakespeare produces "Macbeth."