Salomé Dewaels

1542, the year of Jacques Cartier's second mission to Canada. Pregnant by a man other than her future husband, the expedition's commander, the young Marguerite de la Rocque is abandoned on a deserted island off the coast of Newfoundland with the man who raped her and his maid. She will remain there for two years, surviving hunger, cold, despair, and madness.

Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.