It is England in the time of Henry VIII. Two boys meet. They were born on the same day, they look identical but they are not from the same family. Tom Canty, is a pauper living in a hovel in the back streets of London, surviving as a beggar. The other is Edward, Prince of Wales and about to become Edward VI.

By a sudden twist of fate, they find themselves in each other's circumstances, the pauper raised to royalty and the prince - to the state of a pauper.

This engaging fantasy is one of the classics of children's literature from the pen of Mark Twain. Woven into the fragment of an exciting story involving two boys trying to make sense of their worlds, is a wealth of historical detail colouring the life and times of Tudor England.