Venice. Winter, 1539. When Cesare Aldo learns of a conspiracy to assassinate Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, he is hired to protect the ruler of Florence.

With his life, if necessary. The deadly attack which follows leads to bodies, bloodshed – and something far more dangerous. Those behind the plot obtain a journal of the duke’s, containing explosive secrets that – in the wrong hands – could destroy all of Florence.

Aldo must hunt down those responsible and reclaim the journal, or face banishment from the city and everyone he loves. The trail leads him towards the one place Aldo has sworn to never return, a city of masks and lies where he has no allies and far too many enemies: Venice. The fate of a dynasty rests on his shoulders, if he can make it out alive.