In 1787, the beautiful Lucia is married off to Alvise Mocenigo, scion of
one of the most powerful Venetian families. But their life as a golden
couple will be suddenly transformed when Venice falls to Bonaparte. We
witness Lucia's painful series of miscarriages and the pressure on her
to produce an heir; her impassioned affair with an Austrian officer; the
glamour and strain of her career as a hostess in Vienna; and her amazing
firsthand account of the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. With his brave and
articulate heroine, Andrea di Robilant has once again reached across the
centuries, and deep into his own past, to bring history to rich and
vivid life on the page.