Kim is back in the US, licking her wounds both metaphorical and physical when a vision of Ruli, the woman who married Alec Ysvorod, crown prince of Dobrenica and the man Kim loves, forces her to return to Dobrenica to face the mess she left behind. Nothing has gone right. Ruli is dead, Alec blamed for the accident that killed her-and unrest in Dobrenica includes rumors of vampires on the move. Vampires? Kim was just getting used to the existence of ghosts, and the liminal borders of what anywhere else is called magic! She's not sure what's worse, dealing with vampires or a pack of hostile relatives, as she finds loyal friends to aid her in trying to help Alec, who is grimly determined to carry on in spite of the accusations. Meanwhile, there is a murderer stalking them all.