In 18th century New France, FranƯcois Laurent, a 15-year-old orphan, takes a job as a maid to escape her life of poverty and is swept into a new world of privilege and fine things. But when she is caught stealing a pair of her mistress's beautiful gloves, she finds herself thrown in jail and sentenced to death by hanging. Her only chance of survival is to convince the prisoner in the cell beside her to become the hangman and marry her, but is she cunning enough to make it happen?