Bernard Mauprat is raised by a family of robber barons in a tower in the Berry, and a cousin they have carried off makes him swear to be human before she will speak to him again — a promise that takes the rest of his life. Sand left her husband at twenty-seven and wore men's clothes to get into places women were not admitted; this 1837 novel argues that a person can be made over, and does not pretend the making is gentle.