But in one important respect, I will depart from the Florentine model. To the Florentines everything begins and ends with profit. What they reveal are the secrets of the ledger. What I propose to set down for you are the secrets of the heart. Heiress to a Jewish banking dynasty, secretary to the world-renowned Isabella d'Este, married to the Pope's Jewish body physician, and lover of the Christian Lord Pirro Gonzaga, Grazia dei Rossi is a woman suspended between two cultures, forced to choose between two men, two worlds.
Love wins out over duty.
She enters the House of Converts to prepare herself for Christian marriage. But the Gonzaga family has other plans for their kinsman. He is whisked away to make a more suitable match and Grazia is left in disgrace both at court and with her own people. But Grazia is not destined to languish in misery. An unexpected marriage proposal saves her and she takes up life again as the wife of Judah del Medigo, esteemed as a scholar and physician, adviser to kings and popes.