In a time of revolution, everyone - - even a humble seamstress plying her magic to support her family - must take a side.

Sophie is a young dressmaker who, with hard work, talent, and a rare proficiency sewing spells into cloth, has managed to open her own shop and lift herself and her brother, Kristos, out of the poverty that plagues their immigrant community. Her reputation for beautiful ballgowns and discreetly-embroidered charms for luck, love, and protection secures her a commission from the royal family itself -- and the commission earns her the attentions of a dashing but entirely unattainable duke.

Meanwhile, her brother, a day laborer with a keen mind and a thirst for justice, rises to prominence in the growing anti-monarchist movement. Their worlds collide when the revolution's shadow leader takes Kristos hostage and demands that Sophie place a curse on the queen's new Midwinter costume -- or Kristos will die at their hand.

As the proletariat uprising comes to a violent climax, Sophie must choose: between her brother and the community of her birth, and her lover and the life she's striven to build.