Snail, a midwife's apprentice in the Unseelie Court, meets Prince Aspen, a Seelie prince being held as a hostage in order to prevent a war. In thinking that they are stopping the war, they instead trigger one.
When Prince Aspen and Snail, the midwife's apprentice, realize that they have started the war they meant to prevent, they take on new identities and go on a quest to make things right.
Aspen (the hostage prince) and Snail (the midwife's apprentice) must gather an army to face the Unseelie forces that want to destroy Aspen's home country.
