Set in twelfth-century Aquitaine, the novel unfolds a sweeping historical drama of power struggles, revenge, marriage, and political maneuvering centered on Eleanor. Grounded in history, it brings forward female agency and the violent order of medieval Europe through a strongly suspenseful narrative.

It casts the power and revenge of medieval Europe in a broad frame seen from a woman's side of history.

After her mother's death, a woman is forced to confront her estranged father and the family's buried secrets. Beginning with grief, the novel quietly unravels the fraying of a family history while tracing the possibility of affection, forgiveness, and reconnection.

From beneath a family's silence, the lost conversation slowly returns.