The druids predicted that Rian would become a great warrior, but he didn’t want to leave his loving family. One evening, humiliated and angry, Rian flees the other boys to hide in the cellars...where he finds a cozy room filled with colorful boxes called “books,” and a wren-like Fae who explains that he can choose his own fate. Each year, he rolls the dice and one figurine vanishes. Easy, right? Rian figures that certainly he can get the Warrior figure to disappear, so he can find a fate that is more kind and helpful.

Meanwhile, Rian is pulled into helping another squire—bold and charismatic Nessa is determined to avenge her past, despite being a girl. And the young princess has just emerged from an illness that left her blind, and when Rian helps her to shell peas, the king commands that he attends her every day.

But whatever the frustrations of his daily life, Rian can retire to his library and finds a book that fills the yearning in his soul, from "The Little Prince" to Ali Hazelwood.

As they grow up, the three young people’s lives become more entangled—and Rian’s fates vanish one by one. What power does Rian have to protect his women friends…and does he have any choice left about his own future?