- The Ball begins with Azalea on the arm of Prime Minister Fairweller, whom she dislikes; her dad opted to stay with her mom, so there ya go.
- So Azalea does the opening dance with Fairweller (he's young, and luckily he's not a bad dancer), and then a bunch of other dudes ask her to dance.
- Azalea takes a break from dancing and stands near the giant Christmas trees—only to be surprised when one of the trees hands her a handkerchief. Turns out her ten younger sisters, forbidden to come to the ball, have hidden inside the trees to watch the ball. Ha.
- Because she's a good older sister, Azalea makes a few trips to the dessert table to bring plates of food to her sisters. But then she almost knocks into a gentleman, and since he's bleeding, Azalea uses her sister Bramble's handkerchief to bind up his hand.
- This is one nice guy: he's too polite to mention the fact that she's feeding a tree. And it turns out that they've met before—he's Lord Bradford, son of the former Prime Minister. He gets whisked away to dance, and Azalea spends the rest of the ball hoping to dance with him.
- Suddenly Fairweller appears and announces that the ball is over. It's kinda awkward.
- Azalea falls asleep with her sisters curled up at the base of the Christmas trees, and all the little girls are excited when they wake up the next morning—it's Christmas… but there are no presents waiting for them, no treats, nothing.
- Fairweller is there, though, and he tells them that the King is out riding. Also, their mother is dead.