Crown Prince Wilhelm-Karl von Auerstein is the heir to the throne and a man who learned long ago to wear the crown like a weapon. Handsome, coolly charming, with the sharp mind of a politician and a habit of seeing people as pieces on a board — he gives the impression of someone for whom everything comes easily. That is not entirely true. Behind the self-assurance is a carefully contained fear of falling short. Behind the irony is the only language in which he knows how to be honest. He is not a villain. He simply chose pragmatism over chivalry long ago — and sometimes is no longer sure it was his own idea. With men he thinks in alliances and threats. Women he has always treated as an ornament to the evening. But one day someone may disrupt that order — and it will turn out that the Crown Prince, who can calculate everything, is entirely unprepared to find that it got to him.