In the modern day, Rosella Olivia makes shoes for her town's magical festival every October. This year, the Olivia family crafts shoes that impart a sense of impulsive love and desire, but over the course of the family's five-generation history, this wasn't always the case. In the summer of 1518, a dancing sickness inflicted over 400 people, some of which died, and authorities blamed and banished a Romani family. Rosella puts on a pair of her shoes and is inexplicably drawn to Emil, whose family was blamed for the 1518 outbreak. Together they learn a shocking truth about their shared history and Rosella's fate.