For more than four decades, Signora Francesca Ginori has kept her true identity secret. Living a quiet life, with her children grown, living their lives with children of their own, she believes she has put her past behind her. That is, until one peaceful summer afternoon when a stranger arrives at her door with news of the death of an old friend. The stranger knows her secrets and threatens to turn her world to chaos by revealing them if she refuses to give him what he wants. It is not money he seeks but something far more valuable: the truth about his own past. As a young woman, her life had been turned upside down by one tiny spark. But as that spark destroyed life as she knew it, it also gave birth to another. Fate and circumstances take her to Turin where her life once again changes from the simple life of a scullery maid to life as a courtesan. Her plans were simple, until she met Charles Emmanuel, Heir Apparent, Prince of Piedmont and future king. No one ever plans on falling in love, but life rarely goes as one plans it. A forbidden love begat a curse to span the ages.