When Rachel’s sister Celia invited her out to France to spend a long holiday with her and her husband in their chateau in Auvergne, Rachel was more than pleased to accept. It would of course be pleasant to see her sister again, and explore this fascinating and little-known mountainous region of France. But the ‘holiday’, Rachel soon found, turned into a battle of wits, with herself and Celia on one side, and Celia’s in-laws, the aristocratic Bertelle family, on the other. Haughty old Madame Bertelle considered Rachel ‘not quite good enough’; Francine saw her as a possible rival; Valentin simply made a nuisance of himself. But the one who was to cause Rachel the most heart-searching was their enigmatically neighbour, Lucien de Frontenac!