Good triumphs over evil

Katherine battles with good and evil throughout the story, trying to determine whether what she has been taught by the church is really good, and trying to understand how her love for John can be evil, just because it she is not married to him. She learns, through her kindness and much suffering, that there are no saints or gods who are going to step in and help us, but that we must be grateful to just be, and to simply have a life with no expectations.

Although there is a roller coaster effect of the characters in this book who go in and out of favor with the people, the king and each other, those who are truly kind, like Katherine, Blanche, John, Hawise, Geoffrey Chaucer, Philippa and de la Pole are the strength and backbone of the history of that time. On the...