His mother told him he was God's greatest thing. Then he was stolen, sold, shipped to France, and re-named Louis-Benoit Zamor. Stripped of his esteem as efficiently as a fox's coat in a royal hunt, Zamor is reared by Du Barry—with a love as false as her smile—and a king with unsavory proclivities. He soon realizes his mother lied. Because, in this place, King Louis XV is the world's greatest thing, second only to God.

But Zamor was loved, once. This fact, alone, makes the bitter pill of a lifetime of small nothingness impossible to swallow. Even if false, a mother's words don't die easily.

First, he must survive childhood. Then, if the world thinks the debauched, degenerate king is its greatest thing, the answer is simple: Zamor will have to change the world.

Vive le roi. Long live the King ... and all that.