"We asked not for a bride, but reparations for the war." She was to be married off to a general of an enemy nation... but upon her arrival, her future husband welcomed her with nothing but scorn and a cruel rejection!

Bertine, daughter of the chancellor of a small kingdom, is ordered by the king to marry Cecilio, the representative of the victors, as part of war reparations. Heartbroken, she crosses the sea, only to endure humiliating treatment by the general's servants. Yet rather than yield, she steps beyond the thresholds of her new home to carve out a path for herself in a hostile land. "I cannot rely on Father or my status. I will survive and become stronger."