Faced with a power structure shifting from the French nobility to the revolutionaries, the young noblewoman Violette finds love and purpose as she helps her friend General Lafayette try to steer a middle course.

Violette: Love in the Time of Revolution takes place during the little-explored three years after the fall of the Bastille when the French king barely held on to his crown and head. Meticulously researched by author Barbara Guss-who read histories at home and "lived" them by spending summers in a French pre-Revolutionary castle -Violette's story includes women of power, such as Marie Antoinette, women of strong intellect, such as Madame de Stael, and women of courage, such as Charlotte Corday. The fictional Violette joins their ranks, a girl interested primarily in frills and lace who evolves into a courageous journalist.