Amidst the tumult of revolutionary France, Spirit of Lost Angels traces the journey of a bone angel talisman passed down through generations of the women of L’Auberge des Anges farmhouse. Facing tragedy and betrayal in a world where their gift can be their curse, this is a story of courage, hope and love. Her mother executed for witchcraft, her father dead at the hand of a noble, VICTOIRE CHARPENTIER vows to rise above her poor peasant roots. Meanwhile, in the capital, an omen foreshadows the reign of Louis XV1 and Marie Antoinette when a fireworks display burns hundreds of onlookers. Forced to leave her village of Lucie-sur-Vionne for domestic work in Paris, Victoire is raped and threatened by her Marquis master, and must abandon her newborn, Rubie, on the church steps. She slips a letter and her angel talisman into the basket to protect Rubie on her journey through life. Victoire returns to Lucie-sur-Vionne and marries peasant landowner, ARMAND BRUYERE, although her love for his son, LEON BRUYERE, persists. They transform Armand’s farm into the Inn of Angels - L’Auberge des Anges. Despite her joy at the birth of her twins, BLANDINE and GUSTAVE, Victoire spirals into misery when Armand dies in a plough accident. She is declared insane, guilty of drowning her twins, and sent to La Salpêtrière mental asylum in Paris. With its stench of human waste, La Salpêtrière almost destroys Victoire. She regains her lucidity but still recalls nothing of the twins’ drowning. When she is assigned as personal maid to another prisoner, JEANNE DE VALOIS, conwoman of the Necklace Affair that brought down Queen Marie Antoinette, Victoire finds both a healer and a lover. As the two women escape the asylum, and separate, Victoire wonders if the price of freedom – losing Jeanne – is worth it. Although wealthy from the diamonds and money Jeanne left her, Victoire is fearful of being discovered and sent back to the asylum. On learning Léon had her incarcerated in La Salpêtrière, she realises she can never return to Lucie-sur-Vionne, and that freedom has its own shackles. Victoire works as a chef at the Palais Royal where, shocked to see the rapist Marquis, she plans her revenge. Recalling her mother’s words at her first gallows hanging: ‘Public punishment deters people from committing crime,’ Victoire is unable to murder the Marquis and despairs that justice will be done. But the Marquis has recognised her, so Victoire flees, dyes her hair scarlet and begins her life as a playwright. Known as the Scarlet Enchantress, Victoire’s satirical works depicting the aristocracy’s abuse garner notoriety, but also venom, from the misogynists of the ancien régime. Through her plays, Victoire avenges the Marquis’s wrongs. Enmeshed in the fervour of the Bastille storming, Victoire hears the name ‘Rubie’. The pendant the girl wears convinces Victoire it is her lost daughter. She follows, but loses, Rubie through the crowd. Despite her anguish over Léon’s betrayal, Victoire returns to her village and finally learns the truth about her twins’ drowning. Relieved she did not murder her children, but torn apart with remorse for their accidental deaths, Victoire resolves to drown herself. As she takes her last breath she glimpses the spirit of Rubie, who helps Victoire assuage her guilt and gives her the will to live. The Revolution over, a girl arrives in Lucie-sur-Vionne searching for her lost mother and Victoire is reunited with her daughter. Through Rubie’s angel pendant, she feels the energy and force of those spirits lost from her, but never gone.