Catherine

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As the daughter of a Parisian goldsmith in the early 15th century, Catherine Legoix experiences the horrors and violence of life in France during the Hundred Years' War. At thirteen, she witnesses the looting of the Dauphin's palace by a Burgundian mob and sees her attempt to save Michel de Montsalvy, a young supporter of the prince, fail as the enraged Burgundians beat him to death outside her father's shop. They hang her father, but Catherine escapes and grows into a woman of extraordinary beauty. With violet eyes and a mane of golden hair, she captures the love of a duke; yet she cannot hold onto the one man whose love she needs above all. Amidst the splendor of the Burgundian court and the beggars in the marketplace, Catherine pursues, against all reason, the path that fate has laid out for her. For Catherine, the privileges of being a duke's mistress or the wife of a wealthy man are meaningless.