Just when the lovely Bela has given up on Merin - the dashing general to whom she lost her maidenhead - he appears in her native Turi, with orders from the emperor to return with Bela as a prospective Empress. Fearless and skilled with her magical sword, Bela embodies everything Merin could want in a soldier. Except she's a female. And already married - he's horrified to learn - to him...

For her own reasons, Bela drugged him all those years ago, performing the Turi marital rite. Now, to server the Turi bond forever, Bela and Merin must remain bound together by a short rope for 22 days - and 22 nights. That is, if they don't kill each other first...

But on the horizon looms a cutthroat enemy. Now the pair will have to rely on each other-- and the magical sword--to make through alive, and experience the strength of the ties that bind...