Esmé Wenham, a noble lady from Water South, has been forced to wear a veil year round due to her unusual fate and was betrothed to the Percy family’s second son, Felix Percy, from childhood. Mistaking her for an ugly woman, Felix publicly humiliates her and desperately tries to break off their engagement, all while searching for the mysterious beauty who lost her veil at a flower blossom banquet. He even goes so far as to arrange for Esmé to marry his cold and reserved older brother, Silas Percy. After a staged incident leaves Esmé and Silas falling into the water together, an imperial decree forces them to marry. On the wedding day, Felix stands in for his brother at the bridal procession. The moment he lifts her veil, he is stunned to realize that the woman he has been desperately searching for is the very woman he once looked down on. Meanwhile, Silas’s long hidden feelings for Esmé slowly begin to surface.
