The story begins in a castle in the Normandie, on the old frontier between France and England, where the young boy Guy Aylmer had gone to join his father's old friend Sir Eustace de Villeroy. During these troublesome times the French king forces Lady Margaret de Villeroy to go to Paris with her children as hostages for Sir Eustace's loyalty. Guy Aylmer joins her as her page and bodyguard. Paris is in turmoil and the people are rioting in the streets. Soon the butcher's guild, adopting white hoods as their uniform, seize the city, and besiege the house where our hero and his charges live. After desperate fighting, the white hoods are beaten and our hero and his charges escape from the city, and from France.