1890, Lutèce. Cleodora is orphaned, Talentless, and alone. Barely keeping her family's dress-shop afloat and desperate to help her ill sister, she's at rock bottom. In Lutèce, society is centred around the Talented - those who own previous mined gems that gift unrivalled skills to the owner, passed down through the generations by blood magic. There's no chance of Cleodora getting her hands on such a gem.

Until she meets Lady Dahlia. Cleodora is offered an incredible opportunity, an Elite Singing Talent and with it a life of luxury beyond her wildest dreams, as well as a promise that her sister will be well cared for. Cleodora cannot help but be seduced by Lady Dahlia's offer, as much as by Lady Dahlia herself. But not all that glitters is gold, and Lady Dahlia's proposal comes with a price. She tasks Cleodora with stealing a Talent from one of the city's most prestigious families, the Lenoirs, and Cleodora is swept away by her belief that the upper echelons do not deserve their inherited Talents, their wealth, their magic. She decides to take the deal, and help Lady Dahlia steal the talent.

But the Vicomte Lenoir is not what she was expecting. Handsome, sweet, kind. She is soon torn between them, Lady Dahlia, who gave her everything, and the Vicomte, who holds the price of her freedom. Now Cleodora has all she's ever wanted, fame, money, magic, can she ever let it go?