Annabelle's father, Lord Latimer, is the closest counsellor and architect to the Duke at Calais. But when the King of England calls him back to court, he is forced to go, tearing his ten-year-old daughter, Annabelle, from her home and from her best friend, the Duke's youngest son, Thomas.

At the English court, Annabelle grows up to be a sensitive, precocious damsel. She has a penchant for mathematics and drawing, but bears an aversion to the “female arts” required of a well-bred nobleman's daughter. So much so, the she contrives a ruse to avoid them; a ruse that risks her eligibility as a bride, as well as her governess and tutor's livelihoods.

The Duke, her family's former benefactor, now estranged, wants Lord Latimer to return to Calais and help finish his grand castle, a massive monument to chivalry. So, when a courtship party turns to a fiasco, her parents make use of returning to Calais to further educate their wayward daughter, who is now left with no tutor or governess. 

When they arrive, however, nothing goes as planned. Pride, politics, madness, and falling unwittingly and unwillingly in love complicate matters to the point of disaster.

A story of love and friendship, politics and science, castles and knights, maidens and romance, set in medieval England and France.