The eldest daughter of House Yale, Jaina, has long nursed a quiet love for Cecil, crown prince of the Toronto Empire. Born without magic and mistreated by her family, she is suddenly ordered by her father into a political marriage. To her astonishment, the partner is none other than Cecil.
But while Jaina dares to hope for a peaceful, happy marriage, Cecil crushes her hopes with a single, icy declaration, “I will never love you.”
Even after her pregnancy is discovered, he refuses to acknowledge the child and even worse, begins to suspect that Jaina is leaking imperial intelligence and his own secrets to outside forces.
Driven into a corner, Jaina flees the palace and gives birth alone to twins, a boy and a girl. But immediately afterward, the baby boy is abducted by someone unknown, leaving Jaina to spend her days searching for his whereabouts.
Five years later, now working as a perfumer, she is summoned to the crown prince’s residence, and the long-stalled gears of fate between Jaina and Cecil begin to turn once again.