All Rath wants is a quiet, peaceful life. Unfortunately, his father brings him too much trouble—and too many debts to pay—for that to ever be possible. When the local crime lord drags Rath out of bed and tells him he has three days to pay his father's latest debt, Rath doesn't know what to do. There's no way to come up with so much money in so little time. Then a friend poses an idea just ridiculous enough to work: enter the Tournament of Losers, where every seventy-five years, peasants compete for the chance to marry into the noble and royal houses. All competitors are given a stipend to live on for the duration of the tournament—funds enough to cover his father's debt. All he has to do is win the first few rounds, collect his stipend, and then it's back to trying to live a quiet life…

At the conclusion of the famous Tournament of Losers, Warloff finds himself one of the coveted winners, set to marry Lord Marian, second son of the Earl of Bellowen. The marriage promises a life for his children that Warf never could have provided them on his own, a dream come true. Even better, his betrothed by Right of Tournament seems a genuinely good man, sincerely interested in marrying Warf and helping to raise his children. Not everyone feels like celebrating, however. Somebody wants Warf out of their way, and just days after Warf and Marian begin to build a new life together, Marian goes missing. Everyone says he's run off with his former lover, a woman he could not stop loving or leave behind. Everyone tells Warf to forget him, accept Marian is gone, take the money offered by the throne,and build a new life with that. He'd be stupid to refuse it. He'd be an absolute fool to go after Marian and do whatever it takes to bring him home.