Esmikhan, the Sultan's daughter, has so far been unsuccessful in her attempts at bearing sons and becomes ensnared in a plot by Sofia, a former Venetian slave, despite the best efforts of another devoted slave to free her.
Kidnapped by corsairs and sold into captivity in the Ottoman Empire, Sofia vows to rise above the sexual slavery of the sultan's harem, while a fellow slave, Giorgio Veniero, an Italian sailor, pays a terrible price for falling in love with Esmikhan, the sultan's daughter.
The Venetian-born Safiye, the Fair One as she is known, is the embodiment of the newly coined term Machiavellian. With her perfumed body and bewitching eyes, she rules themen who own her. She controls the Empire from within the veiled harem walls, her web of intrigue reaching far beyond Constantinople and into Europe. Her touch is felt in wars, act...more