Isola

Marguerite, a nine-year-old orphan and heiress to a wealthy Périgord château, lives under the care of her nurse Damienne when her guardian Jean-François de Roberval—her father's cousin and a famous voyager—visits for the first time. He inspects her coldly, leaves money for her education, and departs to sea. Over the following years, Marguerite is joined by the widow Jacqueline D'Artois and her accomplished daughter Claire, who become her teachers and companions. Marguerite, initially jealous of Claire's gifts, disciplines herself to match them, and the two girls become close friends.

As Marguerite grows, Roberval's ventures fail. He mortgages and eventually sells her estate to the wealthy Montfort family to fund his speculations, displacing the household to a cold north tower. The Montfort son Nicholas pursues Claire dishonorably until a riding accident kills him. On the same day, Roberval summons Marguerite to La Rochelle, allowing only Damienne to accompany her. Claire and Madame D'Artois have secretly arranged to remain teaching the Montfort daughters, and Marguerite leaves feeling betrayed.

In La Rochelle, Marguerite meets Roberval's quiet, dark-eyed young secretary, who shows her a map of New France marked with islands labeled Isola. Roberval, named Viceroy of New France and charged with founding Catholic colonies, vacillates between charm and cruelty, eventually announcing he will take Marguerite with him on his expedition. When Marguerite secretly writes to Madame D'Artois begging refuge, the maid Alys betrays her; Roberval intercepts the letter and torments her with a psalm lesson. Resigned, Marguerite and Damienne board the ship Anne.

At sea, the secretary—Auguste Dupré—reveals his orphaned past and confesses he has loved Marguerite since first seeing her as a child. They begin meeting secretly at night. Roberval, jealous and possessive, tightens his grip, ordering brawling sailors hanged, preaching against lustful sinners, and interrogating Damienne. When the fleet reaches the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Roberval briefly leaves the ship, Marguerite and Auguste consummate their love. Roberval returns, intercepts a glance between them, and erupts. After Cartier escapes in the night, Roberval condemns Marguerite, Auguste, and the innocent Damienne to be marooned on a barren island.

The navigator Jean Alfonse mercifully selects an inhabitable island and offers parting hope of rescue. The three castaways build a crude shelter, hunt fearless seabirds, find fresh water, and gradually establish routines. Damienne keeps house and faith; Auguste hunts and fashions a calendar; Marguerite plants a doomed garden. They glimpse passing native boats and retreat to a hidden granite cavern, fortifying it as their home. Marguerite eats forbidden berries and is revealed to be pregnant.

Winter descends with brutal severity. Auguste falls ill with fever and a swollen belly; before dying, he forces Marguerite to learn to load and fire the arquebus. He dies in her arms. The frozen ground prevents burial, and a white bear digs up his body and devours it. In rage, Marguerite shoots and beheads the bear. Marguerite gives birth to a son she names Auguste, but starvation leaves her without milk, and the baby dies. She buries him inside his father's broken cittern.

When Roberval's three ships pass the island the following summer and ignore her signals, Marguerite recognizes his deliberate betrayal. She resolves to live for Damienne's sake. The two women sustain themselves through hunting, fishing, and salt-harvesting, and Damienne shares her own past for the first time. A festering knife wound takes Damienne's life, leaving Marguerite utterly alone.

Marguerite sinks toward suicide, walking onto the frozen sea, but a white fox blocks her path and leads her back. A second white bear attacks her cave; she kills it and reclaims her will to live. Witnessing waves freezing as they break, she experiences a renewal of faith. The next summer, twelve Basque fishermen land on her island. Mistaken for a nun, she wins their trust through prayer and hunting, then bribes Captain Aznar with gold to take her aboard.

The voyage home is harrowing: a storm capsizes the sister vessel and drowns six men, but Marguerite's boat survives, and the crew credits her prayers. They reach La Rochelle, where she finds Jean Alfonse absent and is thrown from his door, declared dead by all who knew her. Disguised as a servant, she journeys ten days to Périgord, where Claire finally recognizes her by the returned signet ring and embraces her.

Welcomed home by Claire and Madame D'Artois, Marguerite gradually reveals a partial version of her story. The Montforts return; Lady Katherine, captivated, presents Marguerite to Queen Marguerite of Navarre during a royal visit. Roberval, present at court, has already poisoned the well by giving the Queen a sanitized account in which his men rescued Marguerite. Risking royal displeasure, Marguerite contradicts the Queen and tells her true story—Auguste, the bear, the lost child, the Basque rescuers. Moved, the Queen grants Claire's convent dowry and a casket of gold to found a school for girls, with a royal charter.

Claire refuses the convent and joins the school instead. Marguerite rebuffs a final extortion attempt by Roberval's messenger, and the three women depart Périgord for Nontron to begin their school, where Marguerite intends to teach girls scripture, music, and—through her own story—how to live unafraid.