The story is set in the era of feudalism and the manorial system. The other significant aspect of life was the ongoing Crusades to the Holy Land. Bertrand de Clary felt the call to the Crusades once his two children were born, leaving his wife more power than she might otherwise have exerted on her seventeen-year-old daughter. Young men in their teens often travelled to another manor to learn military skills (squires), or in the case of Haluin, clerk duties. Adelais de Clary used her power to ruin her daughter's life, and tried to do the same to the handsome young man who had been living at her manor for four years.
