In the strange world of Lucifram, where power, religion, desire, and deception are woven together, a restless young princess is about to step into a dangerous game.
Marigold, Princess of Ellel, is surrounded by privilege yet dissatisfied with the sheltered existence expected of her. Fascinated by Alphonso, the revered High Priest, she disguises herself as a beggar in an audacious attempt to approach and test him. Her actions draw her into a world far more complicated than she imagined, where appearances conceal hidden motives and powerful figures pursue designs of their own. Watching over Lucifram is the brilliant Prince Plucritus, while the mysterious St. Armand emerges as an unsettling presence whose influence threatens to reach deep into Marigold's life.
As Marigold moves through temples, palaces, poverty, spiritual questions, jealousy, love, and manipulation, the fantastic world around her becomes a distorted reflection of human society itself. Blending romance and fantasy with religious allegory, social satire, and an imaginative vision of another world, Edith Allonby's Marigold is an unusual tale of innocence and experience, earthly desire and spiritual aspiration, and a young woman struggling to understand the forces competing for her heart and soul.