The Prologue tells the story of how Jude Duarte and her two sisters, Taryn and Vivienne (Vivi), came to live in the magical realm of Elfhame. One day when twins Jude and Taryn are seven and their older sister Vivi is nine, a strange man comes to the doorstep of their suburban American house. The girls’ mother is afraid when she sees the man, and dialogue between the two reveals that the man, a faerie named Madoc, was their mother’s first husband—and that Vivi is Madoc’s daughter. The girls’ mother, a mortal, left the magical immortal realm of Elfhame (also called “Faerie”), and she had Jude and Taryn with another mortal man. Saying he has come to reclaim his daughter, Madoc kills Jude’s parents and takes all three girls off to Elfhame.

The story fast-forwards 10 years, and the narrative switches to a first-person perspective from Jude’s point of view. She has grown up in Faerie, where mortals can only join the Faerie King’s court if they marry a member or are granted permission to do so because of some skill or achievement valued by the King Eldred Greenbriar.