Sixteen-year-old Marguerite knows her uncle doesn't like her. True, she's in line for the throne before him and he contends she's too deaf to rule, but she's known since he broke her hand to keep her from using sign language. Now, as the kingdom's Bishop-Princep, Uncle Reichard has declared war on magic and Marguerite must hide the fact that she's a witch.

While witnessing her first witch trial, Marguerite rescues a child from death with the help of a handsome, itinerant acrobat, Tys. Marguerite flees, hiding in the neighboring empire where magical gifts can flourish. Before her training is complete, war threatens. She returns home, only to witness her uncle seizing the throne. He isolates and imprisons her. Marguerite's love for her people drives her to continue defying him. But to challenge him means she'll have to rely on her homemade invisibility cloak, questionable allies, and Tys, the one boy she never should have trusted.