Florence, 1498. The long rule of the Medici is over and a new regime has emerged from the turbulence, a genuine republic of the people. But Florence is weak and threatened by a new warlord who is rampaging across central Italy-Cesare Borgia.

Niccol Machiavelli is young and inexperienced when he becomes second secretary of the Florentine chancellery, but he is destined to become his city's leading diplomat. As he tries to counter the Borgia threat, Machiavelli is plunged into the grim realities of power politics, negotiates with kings and popes, and learns that no one can be trusted.

In the tradition of Hilary Mantel, this is the story of a skilled diplomat whose name has become a byword for treachery and double dealing.