Andre is a young hothead during the French Revolution who hates the aristocrats in his village. He joins a gang of ruffians to storm the estate of the Duc de Marigny and loot their riches. Because of a law that says an aristocrat can be saved from the guillotine if they marry a revolutionary citizen, Andre forces young Aurore de Marigny into marriage. She is horrified by this, but agrees to the marriage to save her father’s life as well as her own.

I had so many problems with the direction of this plot, but I loved the writing style. I was also very disappointed that the Scarlet Pimpernel himself is not in this book at all. He barely gets two sentences in the entire book.

Andre as a character is described in delicious detail. We see his fury against the aristocrats who have everything, while his poor mother slaves away doing odd jobs of washing and sewing to make a few pennies. Andre is constantly described as having this unquenchable rage and hatred of the aristocrats, but especially of the de Marigny family in his village.