The plot of this book is based on real events that occurred in Venice in 1576, five years after the crushing defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the naval battle of Lepanto. Under the cover of darkness, a ship with a deadly cargo on board sneaks up on Venice. A man with barely a glimmer of life gets off the ship and heads towards St. Mark's Square. He brings the “gift” of Constantinople to the people of Venice. A few days later, the entire city is engulfed in plague - and the Turkish Sultan enjoys his revenge. On the same ship sailed a fugitive - the beautiful Feyre, the harem doctor, who escaped from the Sultan, who wished to make her a concubine. It is only through her resourcefulness and medical knowledge that she manages to survive in Venice, where the plague is raging. In desperation, the Doge of Venice commissions his best architect, Andrea Palladio, to build the greatest church the world has ever seen, an offering to the Lord so beautiful that it will help save the city. Palladio's life is also in danger, and it will take all the skill of Annibal Kason, the best plague doctor in the city, to protect him from the infection. But Annibal did not foresee one thing - a meeting with Feyre, who found herself under the protection of Palladio, a meeting with a woman - not only equal to him in intelligence, but also capable of teaching him to love.