Six years after voluntarily yielding the imperial throne to her younger brother Cassian, Lyra returns to the capital as a widowed, expectant mother solely to honor his royal betrothal. Her peaceful arrival turns catastrophic when Cassian's insecure fiancée Seraphine mistakes Lyra for a vulgar royal mistress based on manipulated footage.
Ignoring Lyra's claims of royal kinship, the arrogant host family unleashes sadistic cruelty upon her during the banquet, precipitating a tragic medical emergency. When Emperor Cassian marches in to find the realm's revered founding architect bleeding on the marble floor, a merciless purge falls upon the treacherous conspirators.
