To amuse her king, she tells him of the dark and mysterious story of her aunt, her namesake, that begins thirty years earlier
1605 in Perigord. The judge of the small town of Sarlat, Henri Bouysse, is investigating the assassination of Marguerite de Calvimont, found dead from strangulation in her own Ch teau de l'Herm. When her widowed husband, Fran ois de Calvimont, marries his impudent mistress, Marie de Hautefort, no one can doubt he is guilty of murder. But in truth, Marguerite's own mother is an accomplice to the crime.
The past rejoins the present when Aurore is obliged to intervene with regards to her aunt's criminal past . What was once a legend to amuse the king will suddenly disgrace him in the eyes of his court.