<p>The daughter of actors, Claudette has been playing different roles since she was a child. After settling in Paris, where her mother becomes a star, Claudette finds a position as personal assistant to Athénaïs de Montespan, the highly influential mistress of Louis XIV, and France’s “Shadow Queen.” But amid the gilded opulence of the newly-constructed Versailles, she is shocked to discover that the Court’s veneer of respectability and glamour conceals just as many plots and deceptions as the stage. <br><br> As she is caught up in Athénaïs’s paranoia and desperation to keep the King’s attention, Claudette is forced to consider a move that will risk her own life—and that of the family she loves so dearly. </p>