What happens when a monstrous debutante meets a fierce apprentice painter? War.

If there’s one thing Michael Cavinder can’t abide, it’s vanity. As the son of an artist, he has seen a great deal of it from his father's clients. When Lady Patience Hansford, clearly fresh from London society, demands a portrait from Michael’s ailing father, she offers payment that their family desperately needs. An apprentice in the trade, Michael paints the portrait in his father’s place.

When Patience’s dissatisfaction with the portrait brings her to do something unpardonable, Michael creates a new portrait—one portraying her for who she truly is. A monster. When its display in a local exhibition garners Michael’s work fame and attention, Patience seeks her revenge, pursuing the painter who ruined her reputation. What she didn’t expect, however, was to find much to like about Michael, and much less to like about the person she has become.

As Michael and Patience struggle to find their places in society, games of revenge and betrayal continue from all sides, drawing them unexpectedly closer. When it comes to falling in love with the enemy…will their hearts betray them too?