Intrigue, suspicion, and true love at the Congress of Vienna. Esther Lisle, daughter of a general turned diplomat, wakes up in the Vienna Woods to find her royal betrothed dead and an agent of the dreaded Austrian secret police asking her awkward questions. In trying to protect her father and her country, she enters a battle of wills and wits with the mysterious Agent Z. From masquerade balls to desperate escapes, the more she gets to know him, the more fascinated she becomes. And the more anxious to discover the truth. Is he deceiving her? Who killed the crown prince, and who is threatening her own life? It seems there is no one she can trust, and yet Agent Z is always there to aid or provoke her. By the time he abducts her to his very odd home in the Vienna Woods, staffed by young and only partially reformed criminals, it breaks her heart to believe he is the villain of the piece.