Sylvie is a maid in the Kingdom of Eldland, worked to the bone by a greedy mother and a cruel brother. When her grandmother is dying, she spends a single night with the weakened Crown Prince Leopold to pay for medicine. The night leaves her pregnant, and her family brands her shameless and drags her to the town pillory in chains.
Leopold arrives with his knights and a bishop's verification that the child carries royal blood, carrying her out of the mud and into the palace. There, jealous noblewomen spread rumors and her own family comes crawling back for favors. Sylvie has to prove her worth, uncover the truth about her real parentage, and decide whether the man who saved her is offering a throne or another cage.
