Outskirts Press, INC.

The plague ravages France but cannot destroy love and the human spirit

In 1346 the plague sweeps Bordeaux, France, and hundreds die daily a gruesome and agonizing death. Cemeteries are filled to capacity and the dead are buried in mass graves. Anarchy becomes the norm and criminals take over stealing, assaulting, even killing. Gabrielle, an heiress to her aunt’s and uncle’s vineyard estate has her life shattered by Raoul, the chateau’s steward. Mysteriously he gained control of the family and is forcing Gabrielle and his son Marcel to marry for reasons unknown. To her despair her aunt and uncle agree to the marriage. Unwilling to marry without love she runs away and finds refuge in a Bordeaux convent where she helps the nuns nurse the victims of the plague. She meets Henri an idealistic doctor who searches for a cure to the plague. Because of his unconventional practices the medical establishment in Paris expelled him from the doctors’ registry, but the open minded nuns in Bordeaux welcomed him to their hospital. They fall in love and commit themselves to each other if they survive. But Raoul’s obsession with finding Gabrielle becomes deadly, forcing them to cope with horrific events that separate them and threaten their lives. A dying nun confesses that Gabrielle is not who she thinks she is, but dies without revealing the truth. Before she surrenders her love to Henri she must uncover her true identity and the mystery of her birth.