Matrakçi Nasuh, renowned for his mastery of portraiture and maps, crosses paths with Aysun when he discovers a lost sketchbook in the bazaar. The amateur drawings inside are full of heart, and when he later finds their owner—a quiet 18-year-old Dacian maid-in-training—he recognizes the torn page instantly. Aysun is shy, thin, short-haired, and burdened by a past she refuses to speak of. Yet her natural talent and gentle spirit catch Matrakçi’s attention from the start. Inside the palace, Aysun endures constant bullying. Other girls mock her clumsiness, her appearance, her “witch nose,” and worst of all, her Dacian origin. They laugh at her dreams, humiliate her for drawing Matrakçi, and insist someone like him would never look at “a foreign slave girl.” Both Matrakçi and Bali Bey witness this cruelty, stepping in when it goes too far. Drawn to her resilience, Matrakçi begins teaching Aysun to draw, read, and write. She becomes a quiet presence in his home—sleeping in a separate room, studying his old sketchbooks, learning under his patient guidance. Their growing bond forms through subtle moments: an accidental brush of hands, a light touch on her shoulder, lingering glances neither of them acknowledge. For the first time in years, Matrakçi feels something soften inside him. Everything shifts the night Aysun dances at a palace gathering. Confident, luminous, and impossibly beautiful, she shatters the careful distance he tried to keep. He doesn’t look at her as a student anymore—he sees a young woman who is talented, kind, and captivating beyond reason. And despite all his warnings to himself, Matrakçi realizes he is already falling… and perhaps inviting another heartbreak he secretly hopes to keep this time.