'Beware the conqueror, I say, come not with a sword in your hand, for it will avail you nothing against a woman’s smile.' Desperate to escape her arranged marriage, Elona, daughter of a Saxon lord, seeks out a sacred spot in the forest and offers a pagan prayer for deliverance. And deliverance comes-in the guise of the Norman soldiers who invade her village, and in Raoul de Bainwulf, cold-eyed liegeman to Duke William, who takes her captive. Elona expects cruelty, even death, at the hands of her enemies. But Raoul seems determined to conquer by force of love...