The plot centers on a royal family, long tainted by a curse put upon them by the emperor many hundreds of years before.

Sea Dragon Heir starts with Pharinet describing her life as a young girl, playing in the gardens with her best friends Ellony and Khaster, and thinking about her brother's future.

Kirkus Reviews called Sea Dragon Heir "a carefully plotted, beautifully detailed fantasy family-saga" but said it was "spoiled by a thin, trite storyline," indicating that "the midstream point-of-view switch doesn't help.

"[1] Interzone described that "several things lift this book above most would-be fantasy blockbusters", complimenting the story pace, the prose, and the plot which the reviewer considered to be intriguing and dark.

But Constantine overlaps bits and pieces of this tale, turns things upside down, oftentimes confusing the reader in the best of all possible ways.