In an alternative World War 2, Sargeant First Class Joshua O’Hurley (Chris Evans) and British photojournalist Royce Finnigan (Sam Claflin) barely escape a Nazi ambush that claims the lives of Joshua’s entire squad. Hunted, they find unlikely sanctuary in the kingdom of Andolia, nestled on the French-Spanish border. Queen Octavia de Andol (Rosamund Pike) reluctantly offers them asylum in hopes of gaining American aid to her impoverished country. Though idyllic, Andolia is far from peaceful. Octavia grooms her daughter Corrina (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) for a bloodless arranged marriage while they both mourn for Octavia’s only son, Eron (Eddie Redmayne), returned from the war crippled and broken.

The situation worsens when Octavia’s elder sister Josephine de Andol (Tricia Helfer) returns home after her long-standing exile. With her comes her husband Malachi Faraj (Idris Elba), who makes no secret that his eyes are firmly planted on Octavia’s throne, and with Josephine the oldest and first in line to the throne, not much may stand in his way. And somewhere in the center of it all is Lady Tessa von Rictstien (Rose Bryne), a German implant acting as Octavia’s chief political adviser.

Though they had fled to Andolia to escape the war and their deaths, Joshua and Royce find themselves locked in an even trickier labrynith of political intrigue and shadowy assassinations and might have been better off on the front lines.

Q U E E N S | a show coming to hbo 20never