This is the story of the fairy Melusine, whose legend is an ancient one: cursed by her wicked mother, the beautiful Melusine turns into a serpent-woman every Saturday, and is forbidden to let her husband discover her secret. When at last he grows suspicious and spies on her she is trapped in her bat-wings and scaly tail forever - an immortal outcast. But the classic legend is only the beginning of this enthralling medieval romance. With delightful wit and candor (and insight gained from her later reading of Proust and Freud), Melusine tells of languishing in her tower for centuries, lonely and invisible (materializing is such a bother)-until she sets eyes on a handsome youth and falls desperately in love. She abandons her castle to follow the lad across 12th-century Europe as he meets princes and priests, hermits and troubadours, and learns the secrets of chivalry, from jousting to 'courtly love. In time their adventures take them across the sea to the decadent splendor of the Crusader kingdoms, where they join the Leper-King of Jerusalem in his struggle to save the Holy City from Saladin and the armies of Islam.