In 1831 a young princess is forced to leave her home in Brazil and follow her father into exile. After the forcible overthrow of her tyrannical uncle, she is crowned Queen of Portugal and dutifully and bravely lives out an existence that is informed by painful experiences -- spiritual loneliness, revolts and opposition to her rule, the early death of her own 'Prince Charming', the discovery of her second husband's infidelity, the infant deaths of some of her children -- and by saudade, the peculiarly Portuguese, melancholy yearning for lost roots and ties that cannot be recovered, a longing that ultimately proves fatal.