As the Byzantine & German emperors plot war against each other Venice's future rests in the hands of three unwilling people: The newly knighted Sir Tycho. An ex-slave & trained assassin who defeated the Mamluk navy but cannot make the woman he loves love him back. Tortured by secrets afraid of the daylight he sees no reason to save a city he hates. The grieving Lady Giulietta. Impossibly rich deeply spoilt. A virgin a mother a widow.. . Both emperors want her hand for their sons in marriage. All she wants is to retire from the poisonous world of the Venetian court to mourn her husband in peace. & finally a naked mud-strewn girl who crawls from a paupers' grave on an island in the Venetian lagoon & begins by killing the men who buried her.