Washoe County Library System

"Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily...

Rescued from a cloistered life by her high intelligence, Agnes grapples with the complex rules of the Tudor era as the subjugation of women and religious houses strips her of her home and forces her to survive by her wits.