Mary, the daughter of an earl, has spent her entire life pretending to be the perfect, well-behaved girl. But everything changes when her older sister’s engagement is broken — and Mary’s own fiancé is suddenly reassigned as her sister’s personal knight. Each day, Mary is forced to watch the two grow ever closer, while cruel rumors spread that she’s “the pitiful younger sister no one wants.” Her family offers her no comfort, leaving her to bear the pain and loneliness alone. Just as she begins to give up on everything, a kind young man asks her one simple question: “Are you really okay, pretending like this?” That moment becomes the spark for her awakening. Thus begins the empowering story of a noblewoman who finally breaks free from her gilded cage and forges her own path to happiness.
