In the midst of the Battle of Jersey in 1781 - Guida Landresse, Philip D’Avranche and Ranulph Delagarde’s paths cross - forever changing their lives over the course of the next 17 years and impacting the future of Revolution-torn France.
Ranulph Delagarde, 14, a young Jersiase shipbuilder, slated to become the future Bailly of Jersey, stumbles across a plot by the French, with his father’s involvement, to seize the island from the British - at their eighth attempt. Ranulph alerts Jersey’s leaders and infantry of the attack in the early hours of the morning, and becomes the hero of the ‘Battle of Jersey’ for killing Rullecour, the leader of the French invasion, by rifle fire.
During the battle, Philip D’Avranche, 17, a mid-shipsman in the King’s Navy with future ambitions to become an admiral, saves the life of Guida Landresse, 11, the granddaughter of the Sieur De Mauprat, a Jersey-based watchmaker to Royalty in France - descended from French nobility.
Eleven years pass, and Guida, now 22, has the affections of both Philip and Ranulph - with Philip, despite Ranulph’s daily visits, secretly winning Guida's hand in marriage, without her beloved grandfather’s blessing.
Shortly after, Philip, now an admiral, is captured by the French in a ship battle off the coast of France. After months of imprisonment there, he is discovered to be a direct descendant of the prominent Duc De Bercy, who adopts him as his chosen successor. Philip marries a woman of French nobility, the Comtesse Chantavoine. He becomes a prince.
Detricand, secretly the Comte de Tournay, a French prisoner of war from the Battle of Jersey and friend of Guida’s, returns home to fight for the monarchy during the French Revolution. He learns of Philip’s sudden rise to royalty and marriage, and suspects an injustice against Guida.
News of Guida’s secret marriage spreads across Jersey. It causes the death of her unwell grandfather from shock, and leaves Guida an outcast along with her son, Guilbert, born from her short-lived romance with Philip D’Avranche.
Five years later Prince Philip D’Avranche returns to the island with the Comtesse, and attempts to reunite with Guida. When this fails, Philip takes Guilbert - who is returned to Guida by the Royal Court after she calls the ancient Norman law of Clamour de Haro, available to all Jersiase, during a ceremony to celebrate Philip’s rise to Prince.
Detricand sets about righting this wrong, proving Philip D'Avranche has no right to inherit the Bercy due to his illegal marriage to the Comtesse - while still married to Guida.
While fighting for the monarchy during the revolution in France, Detricand employs his friend, the General Grandjon-Larisse, a Republican and cousin of the Comtesse, to help dethrone D’Avranche - which is overseen and authorised by the Austrian court.
Humiliated and downbeat, Philip is killed by General Grandjon-Larisse in a Paris-based duel to avenge his cousin’s mistreatment.
Detricand offers to marry Guida and, after initially taking the title for himself and Guida becoming the Princess of Bercy, instates her son as the rightful owner of the title of the Duc De Bercy, in the place of his dead father.
