Against her will, Helena is forced to marry the patrician Konrad Heller – yet her clandestine love is the goldsmith Niklas. All that gives her hope are the letters that Niklas sends her from Venice by way of the young painter Albrecht Dürer – and the pearl locket that leads her to Anna, the “Hübschlerin”. With Anna’s help, Helena ventures the unthinkable: she rebels against her husband and appeals to the Nuremburg Council. And Niklas, who has discovered the secret of diamond cutting in Venice, sets out to join her. Can she vanquish her fate? A sweeping historical novel filled with Venetian jewel smugglers, bathhouses, brothels and the magnificent feasts of the late Middle Ages.
