Hermione has been thrown out by her father Menelaus, king of Sparta, and sent to stay with her uncle Agamemnon at Mycaenae. Menelaus is angry. Hermione's mother Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, has eloped with Paris, the young prince of Troy, and at present Menelaus can't even bear to see his daughter. The journey to Mycaenae brings both joy and sadness to Hermione. She meets a boy with a mop of yellow hair and a lop-sided smile, who also has a famous parent. But tragedy is building. Agamemnon and Menelaus plan to make war on Troy. Menelaus aims to win back his wife; and...

Electra is eagerly looking forward to her father Agamemnon's triumphant return to Mycenae after the long war in Troy. But his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus have other plans - Clytemnestra cannot forgive her husband for the sacrifice of her eldest daughter Iphigenia at the start of the war, and Aegisthus covets the kingship. Instead of celebrating his return, they murder him horribly; and suddenly Mycenae isn't a safe place for Electra or her brother Orestes. Orestes goes into exile, and Electra has to submit to a humiliating fate. When Orestes eventually returns, there is only one...