There is a contradiction at the heart of The Sinner. The Lords are men who do whatever they want whenever they want, but they must follow orders without question, obey the will of the society, and avoid harming other Lords and Ladies. Each of the rules that the Lords follow are payment in exchange for special privileges. The Sinner examines how these privileges can be outweighed by prohibitions, depending on circumstances. When the society gives a Lord an assignment that goes against his desires, he can no longer do what he wants, or he must face the consequences of disobeying the society. This subverts the idea of a Lord being a “Deity” in control.

Throughout Sin’s journey, he navigates the limits of the Lords’ rules and rewards. He also uses the Lords’ society to justify his behavior toward Elli. As he notes: a “Lord is taught that he can have whatever he wants, even if that means they have to take it” (66). Sin’s narrative arc culminates in the Epilogue, where Sin has become a successful and powerful Lord. This is in line with the happily ever after ending common in romances, in which both leads reach their full potential.

The foundation of the Lords’ society is the reward for service, which varies between money, power, and sex. However, these privileges are not distributed evenly across the organization. Sin frequently notes the varying powers and ranks of different Lords. For example, Sin does not hesitate to punish David, since David is a lower-ranked Lord than Sin’s father. Although David is a Lord, he is not allowed to have sex with Elli because she “belongs” to another Lord. Sin observes how this contradiction is also the source of power struggles between newly initiated Lords, like Ryat and Matt, in which Lords fight to “take” the chosen Lady they want. Hierarchy within the Lords’ society drives much of the novel’s tension.

Ultimately, Tessier portrays secret societies as enigmas, even to those initiated into them. When Liam speaks to Sin in the Epilogue, he tells him: “You know what they want you to know. What they want you to see. What they want you to hear” (600). This suggests that every detail that Sin thinks he knows could have been meticulously crafted by the Lords to ensure his loyalty. Liam’s argument is that the Lords manipulate everyone into perceiving the privileges of being a member as greater than the prohibitions membership places on them. Accepting contradictions are simple conditions of the rewards they reap.