Lucien is in bed seriously ill with cancer. So how can he simultaneously exist in full health in a strange city that looks oddly like Venice - and yet couldn't be more different? Lucien has arrived in Bellezza, ruled by the powerful Duchessa, but it is his method of travel that marks Lucien out. Through an innocent gift of a Venetian notebook, Lucien has become a member of the Stravaganti, travellers in time and place. He has entered a world thick with drama, colour, intrigue and danger for which he is ill-prepared.