The tall, handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Within a year he was established as a powerful figure in the Royal Court. Devastated by the death of John Brown, her Scottish ghillie, four years earlier, Victoria had at last found his replacement. But this intense and controversial relationship led to a near revolt in the Royal Household. Victoria & Abdul examines how a Muslim man came to play a central role at the heart of the Empire, and his influence over the Queen at a time when Indian Independence movements were growing in force. Yet at its heart, it is a tender love story between an ordinary Indian and his elderly Queen, a relationship that survived the best attempts to destroy it.