In the industrious city of Basalton at the height of the gilded age, highborn families use enchantments to flaunt power and status. The lower classes dabble in cheap counterfeit enchantments that, if misused, can prove deadly.

Seventeen-year-old orphan Vesper Evans doesn't trust magic, or the sorcerers who wield it. Instead, she commits herself to her job as a writer for the Basalton Herald. But when her newspaper finds itself under threat of permanent closure, Vesper will do anything to save it. Then, when she witnesses a murder first-hand, everything changes.

Maximilian Kite is not only the heir to one of Basalton's wealthiest families, he's also a sorcerer, and one with a bold proposal for Vesper. If she can use her investigative skill to help him solve that murder (and prove his innocence) he'll pay her more money than she's ever seen in her life.

Max is everything Vesper despises-but his offer is too good to pass up. And to infiltrate the upper class, Vesper must pretend they are courting. What ever could go wrong?