Trapped in a marriage of convenience, Victoria Peretti, whose beauty rivals that of Helen of Troy, is ripe for the picking when larger-than-life Prince Orsini comes calling. Their fight for happiness is in 16th-century Italy, where women are chattels, and adultery is punishable by death. In his preface, French author Merle, who wrote the popular Day of the Dolphin, informs us that the real Vittoria was sadly underestimated as a person, since "female beauty was overvalued in a male dominated society."

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