Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is an adult fable of sorts, which examines the nature of evil and the deception of appearances. The novel contains two interwoven plots. The first plot involves Margarethe's struggle against poverty and her mission to find a husband—a prince, of course—for Iris, the most eligible of her two daughters. The second plot revolves around a struggling Flemish painter named Luycas Schoonmaker and his attempt to make a name for himself in the art world. Both plots in the novel focus on the definition of beauty and shed light on the saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

The story begins when Margarethe and her two daughters, Iris and Ruth, arrive destitute in Holland. They have just fled England after the tragic death of Margarethe's husband, who we later learn was brutally murdered by his neighbors...