The first series (covering 1837–1840) depicts the first few years of the reign of Queen Victoria from her accession to the British throne at the age of 18 (1837), to her intense friendship and infatuation with her favourite advisor Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell), to her courtship and early marriage (1840) to Prince Albert  of Germany, and finally to the birth of their firstborn child and eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal.

The second series (covering 1840–1849) follows Queen Victoria's struggles to balance her queenly role as the youngest monarch with her duties to her husband and children, various dramas within the English and German branches of the royal family, international relations with France, and such crises as the Anglo-Afghan War (1838–1842) and the 1840s Famine in Ireland (1845–1849).