In the winter of 1208 while the dispute between the Pope and the Cathars intensifies, thirteen-year-old Lady Elinor, secretely in love with the troubadour Bertran de Miramont and determined to avoid her imminent marriage to an older man, runs away from her family's castle disguised as an apprentice troubadour, unaware of the dangers ahead as the Albigensian Crusade begins its onslaught on her native Languedoc.