Life is anything but easy for Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England. As a child she was married to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and now as a young woman in her twenties, she is forced to marry again, this time Geoffrey of Anjou, whom she considers a nobody. Meanwhile Matilda’s heart belongs to the dashing auburn-haired Stephen, Count of Boulogne, but Stephen is already married, and Matilda’s father will not permit the match.
The Nightingale
It is present day Oregon and an elderly widow lives alone. While we are not told her name, we find that she has just recently sold her house and that she is going to be placed in an adult care facility at the behest of her son, Julien. Just months ago, her own husband died and she discusses at length just how weak she feels herself to be. Her eyesight is growing weaker and she is not as strong as she once was. One day while in her attic she discovers something that reminds her of the past, of a life that once was and how it was a very different world. Discovering the name of Juliette Gervaise, our heroine slips back into the past, back into the world that once was…