Esmeralda has served as godmother in the Seven Thousand Kingdoms for several hundred years. She arranged countless Cinderella tales and heroic quests, dealing in both happy endings and in setting the occasional curse when she can't talk kings out of it. She has seen it all. She chafes at the restrictions placed on her by the Assemblage, the ruling body that governs all those with magic and wishes desperately that something would change. When the Kingdom of Charalond starts persecuting all those with magic, it seems she may get her wish.
Princess Aria is cursed. She knew all her life that on her 18th birthday she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and both she and the kingdom would sleep for a hundred years with the prince who rescued her becoming the new king. But the Queen has finally presented her father with a son, the prince he always wanted to rule after him. Now Aria has to find a way to escape her curse or risk being killed so her brother can inherit the throne. But can Aria trust the godmother to help her?