Elara and her younger brother, Daron, assist their mother with the family business of preparing corpses for burial in the decaying city of Marrowbrae. A mysterious “rot” afflicts the city, and Daron is sick with it, having already lost the tip of a finger to the progressive illness. While the family works on the corpse of an old man, Elara is distracted by a strange noise but dismisses it.

The family proceeds to their next job on Gutter Lane, where a woman has died and left her young son an orphan. As Elara packs the woman’s mouth with herbs, the corpse convulses, spilling maggots onto Elara’s hand. Elara remains unfazed, stitching the mouth shut while her brother retches. When prompted, the boy offers meager payment (two buttons and some rice), but Elara returns this handful to the boy, telling him to use it to gain entrance to a nearby orphanage. As they leave, a clean, well-dressed man confronts Elara with a cryptic remark that “the crown needs to be fed” (9) and that it would “love to devour” her (10). She curtly dismisses him, and he vanishes.

Elara, Daron, and their mother return home to their shack by the graveyard to discover that they have been robbed of their tools and food. Inside, Elara’s gravely ill father, stricken with the rot, is coughing up blood; Elara notes with despair that Daron’s condition has worsened as well.

While Elara cleans up the desecrated graveyard behind the house, the well-dressed man from the previous night approaches again and offers her a choice. She can either watch her family die from the rot or sacrifice her life to save them. He claims to be the king’s steward and explains that the kingdom is suffering from a curse connected to the monarch’s crown. To stop the plague of rot, the crown must be “fed” with blood. He states that the current ruler, King Kael, is prolonging the plague of decay by refusing to perform the necessary ritual. The man then invites Elara to speculate on why Merrick’s three queens have all died. Though skeptical of his account and his offer, Elara is desperate to save her family. The steward tells her to meet him after sunset if she is interested, specifying that she must bring no light source with her.

That evening, Elara and her mother eat a sparse meal of porridge while Daron rests, too sick to join them. Tentatively, Elara questions her mother about King Kael and his father, King Merrick. Her mother recalls that the kingdom prospered under Merrick but has decayed under Kael, and she notes that Merrick had three queens—or perhaps four, she is uncertain—who all died. However, she dismisses the details as unimportant palace gossip because she is more concerned with her family’s immediate survival. As the sun sets, Elara lies to her mother, claiming that she is going for a walk, and heads out to meet the steward.

Defiantly lighting her way with a lamp, Elara goes out to the woods behind the graveyard. The steward silently seizes her wrist and angrily strikes the lamp from her hand, scolding her for bringing it. She tells him that she has made no decisions yet and wants answers from him. When she asks his name, he hesitates briefly before calling himself Vale. He explains that many years ago, a king cheated Death, but he refuses to specify how. He tells Elara that the crown was forged from Death’s heartstring (a physical cord taken from Death’s body). Vale explains that the crown cannot be lifted from the king’s head except by the king himself, and that although the king’s lifespan remains finite, the crown grants him prosperity and protection from death by sickness, disease, or injury. In return, the crown requires the periodic blood sacrifice of a queen that the king truly loves. However, Kael has refused to perform the sacrificial rite, and the rot is the result of his reticence; this pestilence will not stop until the crown is “fed” its requisite portion of blood.

When Elara asks why she, a common gravedigger, would be chosen to become the king’s next sacrifice, Vale explains that the king must genuinely love his queen in order for the sacrifice to work. A previous candidate was selected but could not make the king love her, so the ritual failed. He tells Elara that a carriage will take her to the palace at dawn to become the king’s new caretaker, and he promises to send money and food to her family. When pressed, he cryptically states that Elara possesses something that the last candidate lacked.

At dawn, Elara boards the carriage and finds Vale waiting inside. He instructs her on how to behave at the palace. She must not pity the king, must remain calm and unafraid, and must never open the curtains, because “light is unkind” (37). She is to be blunt, not sweet, in her interactions with the king, and he advises her, “Never reach for him first; you will let him reach. You stay if he retreats; you do not chase. […] That is the seduction” (37). Vale says that her goal is to make the king genuinely love her, as the crown will accept nothing less than a sacrifice that truly pains his heart.

They arrive at the palace, and Elara is shocked to realize that it is a decaying, foul-smelling place, just like the rest of the city. Vale warns Elara not to speak of him to anyone, as he works in secret. The head of staff, Miss Hampshire, greets them, and Elara is taken aback to see that Miss Hampshire is also afflicted with the rot; several of the woman’s fingers are missing, and she has a maggot-filled pustule on her face. Before Elara can confirm that Vale will send payment to her family, the carriage departs, and Miss Hampshire leads her into the rotting palace.

Miss Hampshire leads Elara through the palace, which is filled with other servants who are also sick with the rot. She gives Elara her instructions, echoing Vale’s earlier warnings and adding that gossiping about the royal family is punishable by death. She also informs Elara that the king often refuses his meals and sends the unused food to the local orphanages. Hearing this, Elara is surprised and reflects that she may have to reconsider her harsh judgments of the king, whom she has believed to be lounging in luxury while his people suffer and die. As Miss Hampshire leads her to the king’s chamber, she warns Elara, “[M]ind who you speak too freely around. Fine cloth does not mean clean intentions” (44). Elara believes that the woman is talking about Vale.

Upon entering King Kael’s dark, fetid chambers, Elara finds the king hidden behind screens. He initially dismisses her but then demands to see her. His face is a mass of weeping wounds, and the crown is fused to his rotting flesh. He tests her by ordering her closer, but Elara draws upon her experience as a gravedigger to suppress her revulsion. She bluntly offers him water without visibly reacting to his appearance or odor. Rejecting her initial overtures, Kael lances a pustule, drops the resulting clot of maggots into the water, and splashes it on her face. Elara recoils as a maggot lands in her mouth. She retreats to her room and finds Vale lounging on her bed.

Elara confronts Vale over his choice to conceal the king’s true condition from her. When Elara rejects to seducing Kael, Vale remains unmoved and reveals the full terms of the arrangement. Elara must make Kael love her; she must then marry him and produce an heir, after which she will be sacrificed to feed the crown. Furious, Elara attacks Vale, kicking his boot and disrupting his balance. He reminds her that Daron’s life depends on her seeing the plan through.

Resigned, Elara admits her fear, confessing that she is a virgin whose only physical contact has been with corpses. Vale reassures her, stating that the very act of staying with the king instead of running away will cause him to take notice of her. He mentions that the king is only 29 years old, and despite appearances, is “not unkind.” Noting that her hair is a mess, he combs and styles it. Elara resigns herself to her task.