The Paladin's Star, or The Seventh Crusade

France, 1248. Young Bertrand d'Attal has only one dream — to marry Catherine de Frey and lead a quiet life in the family estate. But a wandering Franciscan monk who strayed in as a guest inadvertently alters these plans. The... monk urges all knights to embark on a crusade led by King Louis, and Bertrand decides to heed the call. The young man's calculations are simple — when he returns from the campaign, adorned with glory, Catherine's parents will gladly give their daughter to the hero-knight, while the villager who has never been anywhere and achieved nothing will surely be turned away. Had Bertrand known he miscalculated, but when he finally learns this, there is no turning back.