It is 1158, and Eleanor of Aquitaine has banished Marie from her court and sent her to a distant abbey. She will be installed as a prioress there: a nun just below the rank of abbess. She has some experience in running households, her own mother having died when she was 12. Prior to casting her out, Eleanor told Marie that her awkward looks made her unmarriageable and suited for a cloistered life.

The convent is poor and isolated. Several nuns have died of pneumonia there, and the gardens and livestock are in bad shape. Sister Emme, the abbess, and Sister Goda, the subprioress, receive Marie. Emme, a blind elderly woman, is welcoming toward Marie; Goda is less friendly, as she resents Marie’s sudden usurping of the role of prioress, which she hoped to obtain for herself. Marie also meets Sister Wevuva, the magistra, or mistress of novices. She is fed a spartan dinner, given an herbal bath, and then outfitted in nuns’ garments. Because she is so big-boned and tall, none of her new clothes quite fit her.

She misses Cecile, her long-time servant and best friend, whom she had to leave behind at Eleanor’s court.