The narrator introduces the main cast: sybil, the protagonist's maid, and her childhood friend, hazel, who is also a childhood friend of the protagonist. Leonora, the plaything of the sparrow, is tasked with preventing the stories of the game "the hidden rose" from being published. She is the eldest daughter of sparrow, a duchy game in which the protagonist has to hide a rose in order to escape capture. The protagonist is a young girl who falls in love with the game's protagonist, a young man named fredrick, and a young woman named milly rosewood, who works as a mercenary in the capital, Washington, D. C.