In 15th Century Italy, a girl as beautiful as Simonetta Cattaneo never wants for marriage proposals. When Marco Vespucci, a handsome young man, highly favoured by the Medici in Florence, asks for her hand, she eagerly accepts. Even before her wedding is set, Simonetta is swept into a glittering circle of politicians, poets, artists and philosophers. The men of Florence, most notably the rakish Giuliano de'Medici, are enthralled with her beauty. That she is educated and an ardent reader of poetry makes her more desirable still. But it is her acquaintance with a young painter, Sandro Botticelli, which strikes her heart. As Simonetta learns to navigate her marriage, her place in Florentine society, and the politics of beauty and desire, she and Botticelli develop a passionate intimacy, one that leads to her immortalisation in his masterpiece, The Birth of Venus.