The novel follows Theodora "Dora" Ettings, a girl unable to feel and express her emotions since the faerie Lord Hollowvale stole half of her soul.

Olivia Atwater submitted her first novel to a publishing company at the age of twelve, but later decided to pursue different careers and continue writing in her spare time.

[3] Atwater said: "I just had the idea that she was a Regency lady who felt and acted as though she were in a dream, and I knew it was going to be difficult for her because that sort of thing would not do well in an era of strict manners.

[5] During the Regency era, Theodora "Dora" Eloisa Charity Ettings lives with her aunt and uncle, Lady and Lord Lockheed, and their daughter Vanessa in the English countryside after her parents' death.

While exploring London, Dora ends up in a magic shop where she sees a glimpse of the future in a mirror: she is wearing a gown stained with what seems to be blood.

Dora's aunt and Lady Hayworth suggest she seduce Albert, while Vanessa will charm his eldest brother, Edward, set to inherit the title of viscount.

Albert calls Elias when he finds another victim of the plague, a girl named Abigail, and he brings her to an orphanage funded by Lady Carroway's society.

Dora tries to reach Elias through a common mirror, but she ends up in the faeries' land, where she discovers that her other half, Abigail and the other sick children are held captive by Lord Hollowvale, who cruelly educates them following what he believes to be English norms.

[6] Writing for The British Fantasy Society, Nigel Robert Wilson described the novel as a "a pleasing mixture of characters and circumstances written to delight and amuse".

[7] Jenny Hamilton of Tor.com said it is an "endearing" traditional Regency romance novel with fantasy elements, influenced by Sorcery and Cecelia (1988) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), meant to "enhance its central metaphors".

Hamilton interpreted Dora's condition as an unconventional metaphor for neurodivergence, but still placed the character in a long tradition of "misfits heroines": female protagonists who do not fit in society and challenge some of its norms, but do not question its basis and end up reconciling with it.