Ione Canosh stands on the gallows. A mob stretches at her feet. Tatus have won the uprising against their Panitus oppressors, and Ione is about to be executed by Kye Min, a Tatus rebel. Instead, Ione is secretly taken captive by Kye Min and when she wakens, she's bound and at his mercy. As a Panitus Maiden, Ione was engaged to marry Beshiel Dvorak, the Captain of the Panitus Legion. Beshiel Dvorak brutalized Kye Min's wife before he murdered her, and Kye wants revenge. Still believing everything that she's been told about Tatus, Ione meets Romy, Kye Min's son and learns the true nature of Panitus oppression. Reluctantly, Kye Min yields to the growing friendship between Ione and Romy. When Ione begins to teach Romy to read, Kye Min sets up a school for her, gives her a place at his estate, and in his bed. However, the new Tatus government is hunting her down with the intent to hang her, even as Beshiel Dvorak is waiting for an opportunity to take her back.