Angélique de Sance de Monteloup is the daughter of an impoverished nobleman who likes to play with the village children and roam the woods of Poitou. When bandits arrive in the village, pillaging and destroying everything in their path, Angélique finds inner strength and leadership abilities she did not know she possessed.

She also travels to Paris, where she witnesses the marriage of Louis XIV to Marie-Thérèse, and meets a handsome young lad named Joffrey.