Caroline Lys Alabain seems to be on top of the world. Fashionable, smart, and well-positioned socially, she can straddle the world of the high Lys and the middle class–which she does ably as the youthful head of Alabain's Emporium, founded by her father and famed throughout the Kingdom of Ouaricon for its exotic wares.

But itinerant circus performer Tobiath—oh, don't ask his last name—knows something is amiss. Caroline's sadness is as obvious to him as her beauty is compelling. The master of ceremonies for the Eastlander Family Circus, Tobiath makes a path from Caroline's courtyard to her bed—and her heart.

Performance and reality don't always coincide, however, and passion, no matter how intense, can't always be trusted. Tobiath and his family have secrets that dwarf Caroline's own, while Caroline's hold on her family's famous business is far more tenuous than she realizes. Their lives are not truly their own, and envy and violence threaten their existence. Can their young love survive?