By the end of the fifteenth century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched by its brutality and corruption, nowhere more than in Rome and inside the Church. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy as Alexander VI, he is defined not just by his wealth or his passionate love for his illegitimate children but also by his blood: He is a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If the Borgias are to triumph, he must use papacy and family-in particular, his eldest son, Cesare, and his daughter Lucrezia-in order to succeed. Cesare, with a dazzlingly cold intelligence, is his greatest-though increasingly unstable-weapon. Lucrezia, beloved by both men, is the prime dynastic tool. Twelve years old when the novel opens, hers is a journey through three marriages, from pawn to political player.