The Duke of Corannes had married the gentle Miarka, daughter of Prince Mikaël Gernovitz, the last descendant of the ancient kings of Bohemia. The prince, enamored of nature's beauty, traveled endlessly in a sumptuous caravan. After a year of unbroken happiness, Miarka learned from Militza, Prince Mikaël's sister-a kind of sorceress-that the Duke of Corannes, bewitched by a woman as strange as she was beautiful, and known by the name of Impéria, had abandoned his home forever.