King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is troubled as she has not produced a living male heir to the throne, having only one surviving child, Mary. Mary Boleyn marries William Carey. After the festivities, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and his brother-in-law Thomas Boleyn plot to install Thomas' eldest daughter, Anne, as the king's mistress, with the hope that Anne will bear him a son and improve the family's wealth and status, much to the disgust of Anne's mother, Lady Elizabeth. Despite knowing that being a mistress will damage her chances of a high ranking marriage, a reluctant Anne agrees to please her father and uncle.
While visiting the Boleyn estate, Henry is injured in a hunting accident indirectly caused by Anne. Urged by her scheming uncle, Mary nurses Henry. Henry becomes smitten with Mary and invites her to court, to which Mary and her husband reluctantly agree, aware that the king has invited her because he desires her. Mary and Anne become ladies-in-waiting to Queen Catherine and Henry sends William Carey abroad on an assignment. Separated from her husband, Mary begins an affair with the king and finds herself falling in love with him. Anne secretly marries the nobleman Henry Percy, although he is already betrothed to Lady Mary Talbot. Anne confides in her brother, George Boleyn, about the marriage. Overjoyed, George proceeds to tell Mary. Fearing Anne will ruin their family by marrying such a prominent earl without the king's consent, Mary alerts her father and uncle. They confront Anne, forcibly annul the marriage and exile her to France.
Mary eventually becomes pregnant with Henry's child. Her family receives new grants and estates, their debts are paid and Henry arranges George's marriage to Jane Parker. When Mary nearly suffers a miscarriage, she is confined to bed until the child is born. Norfolk recalls Anne to England and is tasked to keep Henry's attention from wandering to another rival while Mary is confined. Believing that Mary betrayed her solely to increase her own status, a revenge driven Anne starts seducing Henry herself. When Mary gives birth to a son, Henry Carey, Thomas and Norfolk are overjoyed, but the celebration is short lived as Anne tells the king that the baby is still a bastard who can never inherit the throne. She also states that for her to accept his advances, he must stop talking to Mary. This infuriates Norfolk, as Henry refuses to acknowledge the child as his heir. At Anne's request, Henry has Mary exiled to the countryside, leaving her heartbroken. Her grief only grows when her husband dies of the sweating sickness, leaving her a widow.
Anne further manipulates Henry into breaking from the Catholic Church when the Pope refuses to annul his marriage. A smitten Henry succumbs to her demands, declares himself Supreme Head of the Church of England, gets Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to annul the marriage and Queen Catherine is banished from court. Having fulfilled her requests, Henry comes to Anne's chambers, but she still refuses to have sex with him until they are married (not wanting to give birth to a son out of wedlock). Overcome with both rage and lust, Henry brutally rapes her. While deeply traumatized by the assault, a now pregnant Anne marries Henry to please her family and becomes the new Queen of England. Mary is recalled to court to serve Anne and the sisters form a tense truce for the sake of their family. Later on, Mary meets William Stafford, a financially modest, but kind soldier and a romance eventually blossoms between the two.
Despite the birth of a healthy daughter, Elizabeth, Henry blames Anne for not immediately producing a son. As queen, she is greatly hated by the public who denounce her as a witch while as a wife, Henry starts to despise her and begins courting Jane Seymour in secret. As her marriage falls apart, Anne becomes increasingly depressed and paranoid.
After she miscarries a son, a hysterical Anne begs George to have sex with her to replace the child she lost, out of fear of being burned at the stake for witchcraft. At first, George reluctantly agrees, seeing it not only as Anne's, but their family's chance for survival. However, the siblings do not go through with the act. Unbeknownst to the pair though, George's neglected wife, Jane, (under orders from Norfolk to spy on Anne) witnesses enough of the encounter to become suspicious. She reports her findings and the two are arrested. Anne and George are immediately found guilty by a biased jury and sentenced to death for treason, adultery and incest. A devastated Lady Elizabeth disowns both her husband and brother, vowing never to forgive them for the pain and destruction they brought upon all of her children in their quest for power.
Leaving her children with William, Mary rushes back to court, but arrives too late to save George, who is beheaded in front of his horrified father. Henry agrees to meet with her and she pleads with him to spare Anne's life, stating that her sister is the other half of her. Due to him saying he would never harm any part of her, Mary believes Anne has been spared and leaves to see her right before the scheduled execution. The two sisters reconcile and Anne asks Mary to look after Elizabeth if anything should happen to her.
As the execution begins, Mary watches from the crowd as Anne makes her final speech, waiting for the cancellation. A messenger then delivers a letter from the king to her, revealing his decision to have Anne executed after all and warning her to never return to his court again. Mary can only watch in horror as her sister is beheaded. She fulfills her final promise to Anne and immediately leaves court with the toddler Elizabeth.
On-screen text reveals that Thomas Boleyn died in disgrace two years after Anne and George's executions. Norfolk would eventually be imprisoned and the next three generations of his family are executed for treason in their turn. Lady Elizabeth also died three years after her children and true to her word, she never saw or spoke to either husband or brother again. Henry's decision to break from Rome and the Catholic Church changed the course of English history forever. Mary later marries William and lived the rest of her life happily away from court with him and their children.
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