Rich, powerful and handsome, the Duke of Melyncourt is journeying to Paris on a secret mission for the British Prime Minister when he discovers that a bewitchingly beautiful flame-haired girl has stowed away in his carriage.
Amé, as she is a called, has run away from the Convent where she is a novice and to which her unknown mother had entrusted her as a baby in arms.
It transpires that she fled to enjoy a last taste of freedom after for some reason the sinister Cardinal de Rohan insisted that she take her nun's Orders without delay, far sooner than other novices would.
The Duke knows that this French Cardinal is not to be trusted and agrees after much pleading to take Amé with him to Paris disguised as his pageboy.
It is not long before the Cardinal's men are in pursuit, enquiring whether the Duke has seen the missing novice. And the Duke realises that there is something ominous afoot.
So begins an adventure in which Amé and the Duke find themselves amid the turmoil between the Court of Marie Antoinette and subversive factions against the Queen led by the depraved Duc de Chartres.
With everything at stake, including her life, how can Amé return to devote her heart to God when she has already given it to the Duke?