Because boxing is a considered an illegal and disreputable enterprise in 1880's San Francisco, wealthy and influential members of the prestigious Olympic Club vow to make the sport a "gentlemanly" one. They sponsor a brash, extroverted young bank clerk named Jim Corbett, who quickly becomes an accomplished fighter under the new Marquis of Queensbury Rules. Despite his success, the young Irish-American's social pretensions and boastful manner soon estrange him from his benefactors, who plot to give their conceited former protege a well-deserved comeuppance. Despite this, his dazzlingly innovative footwork helps him to beat a succession of bigger and stronger men, and he finally finds himself fighting for the world's championship against his childhood idol, John L. Sullivan.

In this first part of the Angélique cycle, set in Mid-17th century France under the young Sun King Louis XIV, still struggling for his throne, while beggars and brigands roam the country, Angélique de Sancé de Monteloup, fifth child of an impoverished country nobleman in the Poitou marshlands, expected to struggle for a meager subsistence, educated in a nunnery, is betrothed at 17 to Joffrey de Peyrac, the 12 years older rich but cripple Comte de (count of) Peyrac de Morens and seigneur (Lord) of Toulouse, scarred in the face and said to be a sorcerer, in fact practicing oriental mining techniques which make his vast fortune. For the sake of her family, Angélique reluctantly agrees to the match but refuses the advances of her husband, who does not enforce his conjugal rights, wishing only to win her heart. As Angelique gradually discovers virtuous Peyrac's remarkable talents as scientist, musician and philosopher, she falls passionately in love with him. Joffrey's unusual way of life ...