Esclarmonde de Foix and her community of heretic Christians must find a way to survive crusader attacks and save their sacred writings from being destroyed by the Catholic Church.

Parallel adventures unfold in 1209 at the zenith of Occitan’s culture of poetry, courtly love, and tolerance between Muslim, Jew and Christian. A reluctant King Philip in the north wages a crusade against Cathar heretics in Occitania at the behest of an insistent papacy. Esclarmonde de Foix, Cathar leader and outspoken critic of the Catholics, rallies Occitan lords to protect heretics at Montsegur. Meanwhile, a scholar from Paris, David of Dinant, is condemned of heresy and flees for his life, separating from his loyal student, Theo, who runs to save David’s writings only to be jailed by the Inquisition in Bologna. Esclarmonde meets David and while they decode important documents, everyone’s lives remain at risk because the Catholic Church does not want the knowledge they’re uncovering to be shared.

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