Never bargain with a man clad in unknown intentions. (Unless one is quite desperate.) Poppet is desperate. Her mother eternally sleeps. Her father eternally weeps. And Poppet herself must perch on a strict little chair every day and feed them both to keep them alive. She's at the point where she would even welcome a villain to alleviate the dire tedium of her life. And then. A tormented stranger breaches her castle walls and offers her one of her dreams. For one day, he will lift her out of her pit of loneliness. If only he hadn't turned her father's endless tears to endless blood, Poppet might even trust him…