The author is a doctor of medicine, a psychiatrist, trained to distinguish between fantasy and reality and endowed with a sceptical nature. In investigating this case he played no active psychiatric role but limited himself to acting as an amateur historian to check the patient's statements. This he did with great care and consulted authorities of international repute.

The woman was a heretic, a Cathar, in the Midle of France in the 13th century. To the public of today little enough is known of this heresy. Twenty-five years ago our knowledge of Catharism was infinitesimal. Yet at this time, as a schoolgirl, the subject of this book was able to recall in writing items of Catharism as yet unknown to the savants.

She was also able to place accurately in their family and social relationships people who were by no means historical characters, who do not appear in the text books, but who we can ultimately trace by going back to the records of the Inquisition.

The author began his researches knowing only her Christian name. He has now pinpointed the very day, more than seven hundred years ago, when she appeared before the Inquisition. He has also discovered the names of her family and collaborators.

The reader will see how remarkably the author's findings coincide with what was revealed to his patient. What happened to a small circle in the Languedoc seven centuries ago was remembered and recorded by an English schoolgirl in her early teens.