Princess Violet's life is no fairy tale, or at least not the cleaned-up Disney version of one. After a happy childhood as the only daughter of the royal family, she's essentially sold in marriage to an illegitimate scion of Duke Blooming's family, who will gain a legitimate title in exchange for paying off the royal family's towering debts. But Violet's hopes of wedded bliss are destroyed when, no sooner than Winter Blooming has paid off the debts, her older brother announces that the royal family will give up their crown and titles, depriving her husband of his reward. They've basically tricked Winter into bankrupting himself for them, leaving him with a wife who brings him nothing in return. Winter unceremoniously leaves Violet at his family home and sets off to rebuild his fortune, leaving her at the mercy of his stepmother. As you might guess, this doesn't go well for Violet.

That's actually where this story earns my respect. How Violet is tormented isn't the typical physical blows (although there are physical punishments), but rather as a series of carefully crafted psychological attacks. The primary one is to consistently belittle her medical issues and pain; doctors steadfastly refuse to believe that she's ill and in near-constant pain, relegating her invisible illness to mere “hysteria” or “malingering.” It's horrifically familiar and excruciatingly real; take it from someone diagnosed with fibromyalgia at thirteen who was often told to “stop being such a girl” by doctors who didn't believe in the diagnosis. Violet is gaslighted, harassed, and even given ineffective medication for her very real heart condition by a family that resents her and wants to keep her down. With her husband rarely home, rumors are allowed to spread about how she “refuses him her bed” (she does not; he's just never around) and is “acting spoiled” by “pretending to be ill.” It's infuriating in its honesty.

It's also no wonder that the book opens with Violet attempting to commit suicide. She's been living in hell for three years without a single ally, and at that point, she sees no other way out. But to her shock (and Winter's), instead of dying, she wakes up in his body – and he in hers. Unlike most other body swap stories, creator Ocean uses this to make a real-world point: Violet is suddenly respected and listened to now that she's wearing a man's body. Her education and intelligence come rushing to the fore as she uses them, along with her courtly manners, to negotiate excellent business contracts, something Winter mostly does by force, which does him no favors. Freed of all constraints (including her debilitating pain), Violet finds meaning in her life for the first time in years.

And Winter? He gets some very tough lessons about what his wife has been going through. It quickly becomes clear that he has the interpersonal skills and empathy of a radish, largely stemming from his own miserable childhood as a neglected and abused child laborer. He's been neglecting Violet, not out of anger, but because he doesn't know any better, and the minute he realizes how much physical pain she's in, he calls good doctors to help – and since they quickly figure out how to swap back, Violet does get the benefit of that.

To the series' benefit, Winter doesn't immediately figure out everything that she's been tormented by. It's a work in progress, which means another suicide attempt in this volume, because even with the physical side of things making progress, Violet is still being harassed by Duchess Blooming and others. There's no quick and easy fix for anything.

That, as you may have guessed, makes this a difficult read at times. While Winter is forced to learn empathy and respect for his wife, her life doesn't have a magic reset button. This isn't a time loop story; it's a tale about two people trying to save their marriage (and her life) in real time, and that makes it much darker than its surface plot would suggest. Winter is wounded himself on an emotional level, and that doesn't immediately translate into empathy or understanding. There's real work that has to be done, and no guarantee that he'll be able to do it. Violet is doing her level best as well, but she's been beaten down to the point of giving up (a point Winter never reached, despite his past), which carries its own risks. It's not an easy story to read.

Not many manhwa of this sort bear comparing to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic story The Yellow Wallpaper, but this one does. Violet has been papered over and made to feel that it was all she deserved and that the wallpaper was too tough to rip free. I want her to escape and become more than the woman behind the wallpaper. No one deserves to be papered over, and this story may just be about Violet and Winter realizing that – and hopefully doing something about it.