The former “traveling harlot” Marie is leading a pleasant life in a little city on the Rhine, as the wife of Michel, the lord of the castle. But in Bohemia a war is raging on, and at the urging of the German Kaiser, Prince Ludwig sends out 1,425 soldiers with Michel as their leader. This stirs the jealousy of the knight Falko von Hettenheim. After Michel is severely wounded in a skirmish, he is left for dead by Falko.
Marie is now considered a widow, this after she finally became pregnant in her tenth year of marriage. But Kunigunde, the wife of the new lord of the castle, isn’t going to give her time to grieve, she wants her fortune. She and the Count Palatine want to see Marie married off again, but Marie doesn’t believe Michel is dead. With the help of her friend Hiltrud she manages to escape, and disguised as a provisioner she joins the ranks of the knights who want to join Kaiser Sigismund’s army in the east.
Meanwhile, Michel has lost his memory, having taken a blow to the head, he doesn’t even know his own name. He is taken in by refugees and after he returns to health is caught up in the Bohemian conflict once again.
In the end, after an odyssey of battles, intrigues and desperation, Marie and Michel find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. They find a way to communicate and finally to save themselves. Michel wants to make Falko pay for his betrayal, but Marie is looking further ahead: she wants to make a new home with Michel on the fief the Kaiser has granted them.
600 Pages, 978-3-426-66113-0
May 2005
