Charlotte lives on a farm in Canada. On her twelfth birthday, her father tells her that her mother, whom she has always believed dead, is actually alive and living in Paris, and that she will soon come to live with them. Charlotte is very upset at first, but as she begins to accept the news, her father dies soon afterward. Now Charlotte must confront many challenges. She discovers that her father came from a noble family and that her grandfather wants to force her to return to that lineage. She knows nothing about her mother, and at the same time a landowner is attempting to seize her father’s farm. Poor Charlotte.