Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Bellamy, the seventeen-year-old king of Arcadia, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when Clarke Griffin volunteers to marry Bellamy. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the king for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Clarke’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch. . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend. She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Clarke is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.