In the Arabian palace of the sheik, serious and lovely Isabelle Fairfax is surrounded by her doting family; servants and wants for nothing. When she comes of age, she decides to travel to France to live with the Carmelite nuns who are a cloistered sect; much to the shock of her parents. Once in France, she becomes a link to the outside world for the nuns and her days are spent in prayer, solitude and bartering for goods in the small village. Meanwhile less than fifty miles away, a new French government is forming in Paris and Nicolas de Lieurrey is at the center of it. Trained at the prestigious Lycee Louis-le-Grand school, Nicolas is an engineer by trade but drawn to the new world swirling around him. His best friend Max entices him to run as a delegate in the new government and together they have a front row seat to the changes in France. However many of the changes are not good and as the restrictions on the religious houses increase, Isabelle makes the journey to Paris to stem the anti-religious fervor. Nicolas is drawn to the innocent young woman even as his friend Maximilien Robespierre plunges France into a reign of terror killing tens of thousands in the name of the new republic.