LONDON, 1674. The King is back on the throne, the latest openings at Drury Lane are the talk of the coffee houses and yet the livelihoods of Mariana Quinn and Thomasin Rivers, playwrights with a romantic past, remain precarious.

Theatre managers are sceptical about the public's appetite for writing by women though, as Thomasin discovers, ambitious George Petheridge seems happy to plagiarise her work. Meanwhile, the box office takings are down on Mariana's provocative new play, because the Puritan Nathaniel Birch is deterring the audience by standing outside the playhouse warning of damnation.

When Mariana writes to Thomasin she proposes a game that promises to protect both their careers. With nothing to link Mariana to George, or Thomasin to Nathaniel, they'll each be free to bring down the other's adversary without suspicion. It will be a sweet revenge, as intricately plotted as their best work. For women who live by their wits, it's an irresistible proposition: drama, seduction, cross-dressing, blackmail! Yet as their masterpiece unfolds, it becomes clear that, while characters obey the rules of dramatic convention, people perform in unexpected ways.