Micheletto D' Angelo is one of many Italian merchant-bankers monopolizing on Venice's vast trading empire in the mid 15th century. But when through greed and corruption he ends up in prison, even facing the penalty of death, he encounters a mysterious fellow inmate. From this inmate, he inherits a peculiar poem of a rose, written in the fashion of a parable, which seemingly recounts the inmate's life; which life is surprisingly noble, and not criminal. The poem has a powerful effect on Micheletto. By and by, he unwittingly and unwillingly, finds himself behaving in both deed and thought, more like a saint than a banker. However, these intruding habits eventually place him in a dangerous predicament, as he befriends a young converso boy amid the turmoil of the ruthless Inquisition, and falls madly in love with a Spanish noblewoman who is the prize of more powerful suitors. The unraveling events of this situation will lead him to discover his true identity: was he still the same ruthless, bitter, and self-serving moneylender that had so defined him? Or by some mystical spell, had he fallen away into the cradle of sainthood?
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