When King Edward VIII made a visit in November 1936 to the steelworks in South Wales which were about to close, he found the whole area was a virtual wasteland. He promised the men who were about to lose their jobs that something would be done for them.
At that time, very few people knew that he was in love with Wallis Simpson, who had just divorced her second husband, and that he intended to make her Queen. He knew he would probably have to give up the throne if he did so. The government and his family were desperate that he should renounce her, but he was very popular with most of the people.
The prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, was responsible for dealing with the crisis and making some difficult decisions. Family and country were bitterly divided, but in the end the King had to abdicate. How everyone dealt with those tumultuous few weeks is told in painstaking detail in this book.