A small town politician, kept from marrying the love of his life, eventually marries another woman and his career ascends, but he secretly continues the relationship with his true love.

Valentin Roxas was raised by his Tatay Lito alone when his mother left them to work abroad when he was seven. To maintain a sense of normalcy, Lito wrote young Val letters supposedly from his mother, promising she would return.

In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne and kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love. After Dimmesdale must go away for a time to England, he returns to discover that Hester has given birth to their child and is the focus of local censure.

Edwina Currie, Matthew Parris and Ian Hislop lead a cast of politicians and journalists sharing personal memories of Cecil Parkinson and the scandal that ended his political ambitions – a secret affair with his secretary Sara Keays that lasted 12 years and would threaten the stability of the Conservative government. A story of power, politics and personal consequences.