Spanning centuries, the saga of the immortal Count Saint-Germain is an ambitious and engrossing feat of the imagination that re-imagines the place of vampires in our literary tradition. Unlike the dark monsters of myth, Saint-Germain is the last bastion of courtly virtue and honor in a society frequently overwhelmed by evil and cruelty. The Comte de Saint-Germain is living in relative peace and prosperity in the village of Orgon in fourteenth-century France. He has won a grudging acceptance from the local populace, who are uneasy with his strange and foreign ways but are appreciative of his generosity. But a new threat has upset the precarious balance. Plague has come to France, and the people's fear turns to xenophobia. Saint-Germain, of course, is beyond susceptibility to disease, but it is this very immunity that draws suspicion. To avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature, Saint-Germain must use all of his wits and power to escape.