On these pages you will again meet the characters familiar to you from the novels “The Queen’s Bedchamber” and “The Beggar King”...

After the death of her husband, killed in a duel by Francois de Beaufort, Sylvie, Duchess de Fonsom, retires together with the children to the family estate, but soon the young Louis XIV appoints her to the retinue of his wife, the Spanish infanta. Before her death, Anne of Austria reveals to Louis XIV that he is illegitimate. Louis decides to eliminate everyone who knows this. His father, whose name Sylvie knows, will have to rot in prison for the rest of his days, hiding his face under a mask. The burden of state secrets is heavy, but it is the key to Sylvie’s happiness.