When twenty-one-year-old Herculine Danton discovers twelve mysterious poems hidden in one of her father’s books, many years after he has died, she undertakes a personal journey/mythic quest to understand the poems' multilayered meanings. The twelve poems contain a coded narrative that retell the stories of twelve classical Greek heroines, revealing clues to her father’s past, her grandmother’s involvement in the French Resistance, and a series of historical intrigues. 

As Herculine attempts to solve the puzzle of the poems before her academic rival does, her life and her passionate relationships with women and men begin to mirror their narratives, while uncovering family secrets and shedding light on her own identity.