Helen Huntingdon is beautiful - so beautiful she has to wear an iron mask. Six months ago her sister Jane uncovered a fey plot to take over the city. But it was too late for Helen, who opted for fey beauty in her face. She now has to cover her face with iron so she won't be taken over by the curse, her personality erased by the bodiless fey.

Not that Helen would mind that some days. Stuck in a marriage with the wealthy and controlling Alistair, she lives at the edges of her life, secretly helping Jane remove the dangerous fey beauty from the wealthy society women who paid for it. But when the chancy procedure turns deadly, Jane goes missing - and is implicated in a murder.

Meanwhile, Alistair's influential clique Copperhead - whose emblem is the poisonous copperhead hydra - is out to restore humans to their rightful place, even to the point of destroying those who were previously allies.

Helen is determined to find her missing...