The sky of Europe is black from the smoke of the fires of the Inquisition. Freethinking is punishable by death...Young bookseller Joan Serra and his wife Anna flee to Rome. Finding himself under the patronage of Pope Alexander VI, Joan becomes his confidant. Who will be executed and who will be pardoned, who will be overthrown and who will be crowned - in his hands are the keys to all the secrets of the Borgia family! There was only one thing Joan did not imagine: that the Pope’s dissolute son, Giovanni Borgia, would encroach on his only treasure - his beautiful wife...