Rilla Perrault is not elegant or charming like her step-sisters. She cannot dance, is incapable of serving an elegant tea, and, according to Mother, curtseys like a constipated boar. When Rilla is betrothed, by force to Lord Bluebeard, a man suspected of murdering his previous wives, she escapes to the capital with Bluebeard's slave, Jack.
Having paid a hefty bride-price, Lord Bluebeard sets his mercenaries on the chase for the runaway pair. Now, Rilla must reach the capital, a place where ogres like Bluebeard are forbidden to enter, before her murderous betrothed and his blood-thirsty servants exact their vengeance.
