Beauty broke the spell by falling in love with the Beast, and they lived happily ever after. For Elise, her friends, her father, and every other citizen of Colmar, the story was a fairy tale created by the older generation to help little children sleep at night without fear. But, forty years after Belle and over sixty years after the curse, the legend becomes a haunting reality once again. Joined on one side by Marshall, who is possessively in love with her, and joined on the other side by her invalid friend Patric, who Elise feels she must protect, Elise never thought she would also befriend the prince and take her own place in the fairy tale. Unfortunately, the return of the Beast means more than finding beauty and love among ugliness and hate. The Beast has real-life consequences that result in misery, confusion, and suffering, and the return of the Beast means Elise must choose who and what she cares about most and must discover whether, like her predecessors, she can tame the Beast.