Description
Montreal, 1889. The sentence will be harsh for 20-year-old Charlotte Bergevin, whose father, a wealthy bourgeois at the head of a prosperous factory, intends to make her pay dearly for her mistakes. Her crime? Gross indecency: being seen by members of Montreal's high society while riding a bicycle, and in men's clothes to boot. Her punishment? To be sent to the countryside, to Saint-Alexis-de-Montcalm, to those her father presumes to be the strictest of their relatives: a great-uncle who is a priest and his spinster sister.
Thus begins a new life for Charlotte. Far from social gatherings, she must accustom herself to a simpler daily life; she who knows nothing of domestic life learns to cook with her great-aunt, to keep house... This will not be the young woman's only discovery. She who expected her guardians to be surly and austere finds them rather affable. And the surprise will be mutual, as her uncle and aunt, who had reluctantly agreed to welcome a young rebel, fall under Charlotte's charm.
Charlotte gets to know the local women; while she quickly learns that there is as much gossip in the countryside as in Montreal, she will make sincere allies in the village. As her stay lengthens, she learns, through her correspondence with her brother Paul, that their father has been hiding from them for years that they are the owners of the family mill. It is highly likely that Charlotte will not give in so easily...
