"Sir, do not let my son fall!" warns the Duchess of Guise to the king at the baptismal font. With wit, irony, and the incorruptibility of a thoroughly researching historian, Robert Merle narrates the early youth of Siorac's son, Pierre-Emmanuel, at the frivolous court of Henry IV. This court indulges in amusement, revelry, and dancing - with its passionate and often lovesick king leading the way. But in the background, more than thirty years after the bloody St. Bartholomew's Night, the fanatical hatred of the Catholic League towards Henry's idea of tolerance still simmers. And the king's assassin is already in the crowd.