Zweila is the seventh child of the Zannebi family, a role that if she'd been born a man would have her predestined for greatness and blessings. Born a girl, she is a shadow of what could have been. Married off to an old and dying Duke to produce him an heir, Zweila discovers that she has the uncultivated abilities of a seventh born. She also falls for the Duke's bastard son Alisdair, and must decide what kind of great and horrible things she is destined for.