Beginning with a young princess's ascension to the throne after the death of her father, this lavish drama charts the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II and the private cost of a public crown. Across each era, it interweaves the intimate strains of the royal family with the political upheavals of the age, pairing the monarch with the succession of prime ministers, from Churchill onward, who shaped postwar Britain. Duty perpetually collides with personal desire as Elizabeth learns to subordinate herself to the institution she embodies. Opulently mounted and meticulously performed, the series recasts modern history as intimate, tragic character study, its cast reshuffling across the decades as the queen ages.