On 28 June 1914 a shot rang out that changed the world; four years later, tens of millions were dead and four great empires lay in ruins. This compelling and sympathetic history sets the lives and deaths of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his beloved wife Sophie against the glittering imperial splendour of the Austrian court; it exposes the startling intrigue and incompetence behind their assassination; and follows the lives of their children, doomed to exile and loss.