Rome, August 1492. Even in the early morning, the city groans under the sweltering heat of summer. The noise in the narrow alley jolts Lucrezia awake. Can it be true what the messenger is shouting? Her father, Rodrigo Borgia, the new pope? The news turns Lucrezia's life and that of her three brothers upside down: suddenly they are the most powerful family in the city, and the twelve-year-old girl must grow up in the blink of an eye. For her ambitious father knows all too well that his daughter's hand is worth more than all the Italian lands combined, and then there is her brother Cesare, who loves his beautiful sister more than is allowed. With masterful skill, Sarah Dunant opens the copper-clad doors of the Borgia palace, sweeps aside the heavy brocade curtains, and depicts the rise of a family in a dazzling yet doomed world.