Oscar, the story's central character and a creation of Ikeda, is a girl raised by her father as a man, who commands the palace guards at Versailles. Her beauty, ambiguous sexuality, and noble spirit makes her a shining figure in the eyes of both men and women, but herself is often torn between her chosen life of service and duty to her class and country, and her own heart and desires. She lives a splendid life as a noble among the opulence of Versailles and as a close confident of the Queen. But this cannot blind her keen senses and compassion to the appalling poverty endured by the French people. Oscar's struggle with this duality in her world and within herself is the center about which the story turns.
