Inspired by true events, a remarkable young woman strives for power and freedom in 16th-Century Moldavia

1583 AD. The Principality of Moldavia is a wild country, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire and threatened by Tatar invasions. Prince Petru VI, great-grandson of Vlad Dracula, tries to maintain his claim to the throne.

In those turbulent times, a girl named Irina grows up in the Roma slave camp of an Orthodox monastery. Her mother, originally descended from the Venetian upper class, teaches her how to read and write. When Irina’s path crosses Cornelius’s, court adviser and mage of Prince Petru VI, he covertly introduces her to the secret sciences.

Irina soon realises that knowledge alone does not satisfy her. She strives for power and when the prince himself falls deeply in love with her she may have her chance. Will her long-awaited dream of power come true? Or will Cornelius’s teachings guide her to unexpected and more dangerous pathways?