"Venice, 1576. Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo along with a secret stowaway. Within days the city is fighting to protect itself from the plague."--

"Venice, 1681. Glassblowing is the lifeblood of the Republic, and Venetian mirriors are more precious than gold. Jealously guarded by the murderous Council of Ten, the glassblowers of Murano are virutally imprisoned on their island in the lagoon. But the greatest of the artists, Corradino Manin, sells his methods and his soul to Louis XIV of France to protect his secret daughter. In the present day, his descendent, Leonara Manin, leaves London for...