France 1685: Pascaline Aubinet watches in dread as Dragonnades terrorize the Huguenots. Isolated due to her long confinement from the Court, her concerns are dismissed by her husband. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Loretta Fabron, is immersed in the excitement of her debut, her musical pursuits, and the prospect of meeting King Louis XIV.

When the Dragonnades are garrisoned in the Aubinet home, the women are thrust into an unfamiliar and unforgiving world. Pascaline and Loretta are abandoned and struggle to secure respectable employment with skills limited to courtly behavior and a sick infant. Humans can be cruel, and those who linger in the night are hungry. As her daughter's health deteriorates, Pascaline and Loretta seek refuge in a secluded wood and village untouched by time. There, they encounter a deathly pale count and his beautiful, uncanny wife, who offer sanctuary. Amidst sweeping political upheavals in France, the count and countess have been summoned back into the dazzling world of Versailles after a prolonged absence, borne from sickness of an entirely different nature. Pascaline and Loretta must navigate the treacherous waters of the rules and tradition of Versailles, love, and the allure and consequences of a bloodier path.