An elite Watcher trainee, fifteen-year-old Princess Adana had everything going for her. Everything, that is, until her mother, the queen, dies. Too young to be queen herself, her mother's last royal act is a decree that seals Adana's fate—she's to be sent to the neighboring Kingdom of Elwar for her own protection. She'll be alone there, as the only person Adana knew in Elwar—her betrothed, Prince Serrin—dies at the same time as her mother.

The three-year stay in Elwar seems like a death sentence, as she will be separated from her telepathically-bonded giraffe and removed from her Watcher training. It only gets worse when she meets the person who will be teaching her about the rules of court protocol and politics—Serrin's stepmother, Queen Quilla, a sharp-tongued woman who dislikes everything Adana stands for.

When a vision shows her the existence of Maligon—a tyrant thought killed twenty years prior—she realizes everything is not as it seems in the Four Kingdoms. Evil is at work in the shadows, and Maligon will stop at nothing short of total control over the Four Kingdoms. Will she be ready in time to claim her birthright, or will Maligon succeed with his malevolent plans?