 Just as "The Man in the High Castle" features a book titled "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", depicting a world (but not our own) in which the Axis powers lost World War II, so "The Alteration" refers to an alternate history book by one Philip K. Dick entitled "The Man in the High Castle".This book-within-a-book depicts a world in which Stephen II was never born, so the "Holy Victory" never happened, and Henry VIII became king legitimately.As in reality, Henry married Catherine of Aragon, but their son Henry, Duke of Cornwall survived infancy, becoming Henry IX in 1547.