Exiled, once-upon-a-time duchess Elayne Orraigh is cursed, and as most curses go, it took everything—her home, her family, and even her own face. Resigned to hiding herself and her unhinged magic from the cruel courtiers of Yavarid castle, fate takes a turn when hotshot knight Sir Frederick, for fear of losing his own hard-won rank and even harder-won girlfriend, takes on a magically-bound wager to turn Elayne from the ugliest outcast at court into the queen of all of Yavarid.

Neither is prepared, however, when they discover that breaking the curse on Elayne is not simply fixing up her face, but liberating an entire kingdom that has been shrouded in a dark, noxious miasma for ten years by a corrupt elven lord. Frederick’s enchanted bet is quickly convoluted when it turns into a cross-country quest embroiled with dwarven politics, infamous pirates, and mythical dragons even though the latter hasn’t existed for at least a century. As Elayne tries to recapture the future that was taken from her, Frederick tries to honor the bewitched gamble, and the two are put at odds in more ways than one.