Provence, 1837. The son of a wealthy landowner in the south of France, Jean-Baptiste loses, his mother in a tragic accident. His truculent father, who was always envious of his son and his relationship with his mother, takes a harlot he met a few months earlier as his new bride. Soon after, Jean-Baptiste is falsely accused by his "stepmother" of trying to take advantage of her. In disgust, his father banishes him forever from the family home.
Jean-Baptiste's only solution is to live with Blanche, his mother's sister, in the mountains. He makes a living as a traveling salesman of herbal remedies and plants picked on the slopes of Lure Mountain. When he meets Lila, the daughter of a couple of healers and water diviners, it is love at first sight. She bears him a son, who symbolizes for Jean-Baptiste his victory over adversity. For its part, Lila forges a powerful bond with Blanche and her new family.
But Jean-Baptiste's happiness is overrun in the tumult of Provence's rebellion against Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's coup d'état. Disinherited and cursed by his father, Jean-Baptiste realizes he has only one chance of finding peace: he must reconquer his birthright, the home of his ancestors.