The story opens with the death of Cardinal Richelieu and the old business of intrigue and treachery is already hard at work,with the new master of France, Cardinal Mazarin, precariously seated in the chair of authority. Monsieur le Diable and his band of Immortals who, during Richelieu's life, were a plague, having the belief that it is not wrong to kill and plunder as long as they do so in the interests of their own ideas of right. While, hiding in the forest, they intercept the flight of Felicite from the Chateau Noir, a semi-convent run by a reclusive Madame Angélique. Innocent Felicite feels safe among these blood-thirsty men, who vow to protect her from evil. This is a brilliant work of fictional characters blended with real history and real characters with the scene moving from France, to England and onto Canada.