As a first exercise, the students quickly write down whatever they may happen to know about Richard III, even if they know nothing. Then, they duplicate the experience of detective Alan Grant in the novel. Hospitalized with a broken leg, Grant is studying a collection of historical portraits. He becomes captivated with an unfamiliar portrait of a man whom, on the basis of appearance, he believes to be an honorable and conscientious individual -- a judge, perhaps. He is both surprised and taken aback to find that the subject is the legendary regicide Richard III. To duplicate this experience, the students study the unidentified portraits of two men and are asked to write down their impressions.

As the students read The Daughter of Time and Shakespeare's Richard III, Vineyard introduces other exercises to build students' critical skills. In one exercise, she gives students a transcription of a fifteenth-century letter and asks them to deduce motivation and attitude. To help students keep track of the baffling array of Edwards, Richards and Henries, she provides an extremely brief history of the Wars of the Roses ("You Can't Tell the Players without a Scorecard") and a genealogical chart.

Toward the end of the unit, students are directed toward a variety of research materials, some from Vineyard's personal library, and asked to check the accuracy of Tey's arguments. A research paper on some aspect of the topic is the final exercise of the study unit.