About the book: 1995 / At the end of the fifteenth century, the French king Charles VIII was preparing for a campaign of conquest in Italy. Due to the intrigues of the royal court, the daughter of the famous Florentine merchant and banker Fiora Beltrami, living in Paris, is forced to leave the city. Fate takes her to North Africa and the island of Crete, Istanbul and Hungary. A young pirate saves Fiora from certain death, and the short love that breaks out between them illuminates the girl’s life with a bright, all-consuming temptation..