When the beautiful Austrian Countess von Falkenstein meets an untimely death by poison, her illegitimate daughter, Anne-Marie, must begin a new life in a foreign country with an unknown father, the powerful and influential Duke de la Marche, Prince of the Blood through the Condé line and cousin to the King of France. Despite Anne-Marie’s heartfelt passion for a Cornish seaman named David Weston, her father’s ambitions will separate her from that love and plunge her headlong into the intrigues and decadence of the court of Versailles, as well as place her in position to steal the heart of France’s most dangerous nobleman, Louis Philippe, the Duke d’Orléans.
But Anne-Marie has her own dangerous ambitions. While awaiting death, her mother had bequeathed to her an ancient and legendary diamond necklace that was denied her in the chaotic aftermath of her mother’s passing. Anne-Marie believed the necklace lost, until she learns that it has found its way to France and been incorporated into the perilously expensive and gargantuan creation known as The Queen’s Necklace, designed for Marie Antoinette herself. However, she soon discovers that there are others plotting to steal the necklace for themselves, and that even the Queen herself might be involved. Enlisting the aid of the mysterious and prescient Count di Cagliostro to help her recover it for herself, Anne-Marie becomes inextricably enmeshed in the enigmatic and portentous Affair of the Diamond Necklace that brings the monarchy of France to its knees and places her own life in perpetual danger.