This is a grim take on Cinderella.  In this society, all girls (of a certain class, actual servants and peasants need not apply) must present themselves at the Royal Ball to hopefully be selected as a bride, as Cinderella was 200 years before. But this is not a happy fairy tale.  Women are treated as second class citizens, or worse, and are completely controlled by their husbands.  Women have no choice in their husbands – they are “claimed” at the ball by whoever wants them.  […]