Wearing a dress that is splattered with blood and clasping a doll to her chest, Sylvie de Valaines, a four-year-old girl, wanders the streets of the small village of Anet. The year is 1626 and her entire family has just been murdered, likely on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu. When a young boy of 10--Francois de Borbon-Vendome, the prince of Martigues--finds her, he brings her to his castle. Sylvie's gratitude to her savior promptly grows into love, a love that will face innumerable obstacles. She will become a lady in waiting to Queen Anna of Austria and a good friend to Madame Hauteford, and in the process will discover, against her wishes, the mortal secret of the birth of the future Louis XIV.