As the dutiful second daughter of a poor family, Haewon is expected to marry well. Instead, amid harsh censorship and rampant book bans, she secretly works as an illegal book transcriber – dangerous work she loves, especially when copying the writings of her favourite author, the elusive Black Lotus. When her older sister begins courting a wealthy young man, Haewon is dragged along as chaperone – forced to endure the company of his arrogant, insufferable best friend. As the only son of a noble, Seojun is expected to embody wealth, status, and propriety. No one can know that he secretly writes fiction – or that the only thing keeping him going under pressure from his overbearing father are the warm, insightful letters from his transcriber, ‘Magpie’. But when his best friend falls for a girl far below their social rank, Seojun must join their chaperoned outings – alongside her sharp-tongued younger sister. Yet the more time Seojun and Haewon spend together, the more they realize how wrong their first impressions were . . .
