L'Honneur des Hautefort

Marie de Hautefort, secret lover of cold, distant King Louis XIII, recounts the extraordinary and bloody history of her family. In Paris in the year 1636, cynical and inhibited King Louis relieves his boredom thanks to his close friendship with the beautiful Marie de Hautefort, nicknamed Aurore. A platonic relationship that suits Aurore perfectly as she is more interested in the gallantry of the mind.To amuse her king, she tells him of the dark and mysterious story of her aunt, her namesake, that begins thirty years earlier 1605 in Perigord. The judge of the small town of Sarlat, Henri Bouysse, is investigating the assassination of Marguerite de Calvimont, found dead from strangulation in her own Château de l'Herm. When her widowed husband, François de Calvimont, marries his impudent mistress, Marie de Hautefort, no one can doubt he is guilty of murder. But in truth, Marguerite's own mother is an accomplice to the crime. The past rejoins the present when Aurore is obliged to intervene with regards to her aunt's criminal past . What was once a legend to amuse the king will suddenly disgrace him in the eyes of his court.