In 1711, twelve-year-old Cʹecile Revel unexpectedly gets the chance to serve Louis XIV's sister-in-law at the palace of Versailles, but instead of a dream come true, life at court proves to be complicated and precarious.
After being kidnapped and brought to the emperor's palace in Gondar, Ethiopia, twelve-year-old Saba discovers that she and her brother are part of the emperor's desperate attempt to consolidate political power in the mid-1840's.