Crown Princess Ximena of the Great Xia dies in an assassination—only to learn after death that her world is a scripted story. She and her two brothers were nothing but expendable pawns, sacrificed to clear the way for the original heroine, Livia. Her mysterious death was merely a plot fix. Reborn ten years later, Ximena refuses to let her brothers meet the same fate. She sets out to reform her wayward brother and restore order to a kingdom gone astray—unaware that the Regent, Shattock, has long loved her, and that even the pleasure-seeking Emperor Xavier is protected only because he is the last thing Ximena left behind.