Shea is the daughter of Nia, a scholar and reformed temple thief, and Eve, an assassin in the service of the Sultan of the majestic city of Emerald. Late one night, after a calamity shakes the city of Emerald to its core, a powerful djinn visits Shea in her bedroom and bestows her with the gift of qissa, which allows her to read the stories of people’s lives from beginning to end with just a single touch.
Even as Shea adapts to her new gift, an usurper deposes Emerald’s beloved Sultan and claims rule over the city for himself. To complicate matters, even as the new Sultan begins turning Emerald upside-down, he kidnaps Shea, her best friend Chloe and five hundred other women for his personal harem. Suddenly trapped within the maze of palace intrigue, harem politics, and the Sultan’s deadly madness, Shea will have to tread carefully if she is to overthrow the tyrant before he either kills her or destroys everything she loves.
