When the people of a small village discover that Catou can mysteriously change her shape to become a cat, she is tried as a witch - until Frederic, the miller's son, steps forward to defend her and they are banished together. For a while they live by their wits alone; then Catou disguises Frederic as the noble Marquis of Carabas from Spain, and herself as his manservant Serafin. They enter the Court of Tenebran, a strange place of sumptuous wealth set in an impoverished and starving land, where Balze, the manservant of the Lord, holds sway. Yet he is not what he seems, and in learning the truth, Catou has to confront not only the diabolic nature of Balze's evil, but also her own identity and the destiny to which she has journeyed since she was born...