The stories are known by all: Glass slippers, poisoned apples, charming princes and bad wolves; and all know that, in the end, those who deserved it lived happily ever after... But then why haven’t they? How could everything have gone so terribly, horribly wrong? And why does everyone act as if nothing were the matter? Those are the questions that torment Ash, one of the few aware that something dire is afoot, and the only one willing to go in search of answers. Answers he shall find in the cryptic verses of the Perraultimatum, which will send him on a quest in search of the happy endings that never came to pass, hoping against hope that not all is lost to gloom and despair. Accompanied by four others who share his fate, if not his faith—the unpredictable Hood, the enigmatic Apprentice, the tormented Vasilisa and the dangerous Donkey-Suckle—Ash embarks on an unforgettable adventure in this first book of the fairy-tale dystopia "Happily Upon a Time".

Surrounded by companions who can just as easily help or kill him, and who are also his sole protection in a world that proves to be increasingly hostile at the turn of each corner, Ash holds on to a last shred of hope and tries to follow Mother Goose’s final instructions to the letter, which lead him to the palace of the Snow Queen, where the Andersenamel - the second piece of the Perraultimatum’s riddle - is to be found. Unfortunately for Ash, he is not the only one who feels that something has indeed gone wrong with the world: A mysterious individual is systematically slaughtering fairytale characters one by one, and events seem to be leading Ash and his companions towards an untimely end before they can even begin to uncover the truth. The truth about what happened to the world and, perhaps even more important, the truth about themselves.