In 1808 Ghent, eighteen-year-old Constance runs away from an arranged marriage to a much older man and by stealing his clothes, sneaking out of the house disguised as a man, and joining Napoleon's army.
Marguerite, daughter of the Count of Flanders in 1347, grows up riding horses, fencing, and outwitting the boys, and although her father was disappointed to have a girl as his firstborn child, he waits and watches, seeing more in her than she knows.
