Zarene is about to marry the prince of Shandrabad. A young woman of high standing and impeccable upbringing, she can only be faulted for one thing: her fixation on dressmaking.

Her world is turned upside down when she encounters a ghagra that divines the future. Haunted by the secrets it shares with her in her waking hours and her dreams, she makes it her sole purpose in life to find its maker and become their apprentice. Knowledge of the dressmaker's whereabouts is not easy to come by. The ghagra offers up clues pointing to a woman, a creature descended from paradise known to mortal men as the howr. An old wives' tale. A myth.

Zarene pieces together the puzzle, befriending a young drifter with a terrible secret along the way, travelling to distant lands and braving the unknown. The price for her heart's desire is steep, the fate awaiting her more than she ever bargained for.