King Henry VIII has a problem: his wife, Catherine of Aragon, has failed to produce a male heir. He's been enjoying a discreet affair with Mary Boleyn, a daughter of one of his courtiers, Sir Thomas Boleyn; but he is bored with her too. At a court ball, he notices Mary's 18-year-old sister Anne, recently returned from her education in France. She is engaged to the son of the Earl of Northumberland, and they have received their parents' permission to marry. The king, however, is enraptured with Anne's beauty and orders Cardinal Wolsey, his Lord Chancellor, to break the engagement. A furious Anne is then ordered to court, where a smitten Henry attempts to woo her, but she staunchly resists his advances.