Prince Radvyed of Tamtir must find a magical flower to save his mother who is dying of a mysterious illness. The flower grows in the distant garden of the powerful and reclusive sorceress, Hideous. Radvyed crosses salt-cursed wastelands and finds the hidden home of Hideous, who is under an evil spell laid by her father and can do little to help him. After frustrating weeks and fruitless efforts, Radvyed finally wins the flower and immediately returns home, saving his mother's life. Unknown to him, Hideous is mortally wounded by the loss of the flower. Goaded by troubling dreams and guilt over his abrupt departure, Radvyed returns to Hideous, who is on the point of death. He breaks the spell that binds her and together they lift the salt-curse, generated by her father's hate, on the surrounding lands. However, a happily-ever-after may not be possible even after the couple return to Tamtir and marry, for Radvyed's people are unfamiliar with and suspicious of magic. In addition, Hideous (now renamed Beloved) feels suffocated by the demands of royal protocol, and in despair flees the palace, sure that she is still a monstrous creature. As Beloved struggles to fit into her identity as princess, a pack of foreign mages threatens the kingdom. No one but the strange new princess knows how to repel a magical attack, but she must convince the people of Tamtir that she has the knowledge and will, as well as power, to defend them. Beloved realizes that the kingdom has its own unrecognized magic that must be joined to her own to defeat the hostile mages. Yet when the attack arrives, she still has not discovered how to meld Tamtir's power and her own. When all seems lost, Beloved, supported by Radvyed, finds the means to channel the people's magic and, sacrificing herself, routs the enemy. The two fall into a mystical coma to recover from the confrontation. When Radvyed and Beloved wake, they learn that they defeated the mages, thus securing the kingdom and Beloved's place in its heart.