Elizabeth Staveley sits in the Bodleian library, holding in her trembling hands a fragment of ancient paper. It is the key to a story that has been locked away for four centuries-the story of a British sea captain's daughter held captive in the sultan's harem. Constantinople, 1599. There are rumors and strange stirrings in the sultan's palace. The chief black eunuch has been poisoned by a taste of a beautiful ship made of spun sugar. The sultan's...

1611. James I has recently succeeded to the throne and the Elizabethan age is over. A new artistic and intellectual Renaissance comes to England. As trade routes open up, a rich and cosmopolitan middle class emerges, with an interest in architecture, gardens and textiles. Seven years after he was all but destroyed in his quest to take possession of the Pindar Diamond, Levant Company merchant and former ambassador to Constantinople Paul Pindar returns...