Bitterblue has done her best to be a good queen after her father was deposed. Four years later, the land of Torla has been discovered, and Bitterblue sends envoys to Winterkeep, the closest nation to Monsea. But when the envoys never return, Bitterblue sets off for Winterkeep with her half-sister Hava and her trusted colleague Giddon, but things soon go drastically wrong. In Winterkeep, Lovisa Cavenda, the daughter of two powerful politicans, waits in the wings for her time to rise.