Justice in sixteenth-century Bologna is like the fine silk which the city produces: something only the rich and powerful can afford.

Elena Morandi, marked by her time in the Baraccano orphanage and grieving the friend who was driven to suicide, has been placed with a seamstress. However, she longs to be a tailor, a profession barred to her as a woman. With luck and perseverance, Elena gains a fragile foothold in the workshop of master tailor Francesco Rondinelli, but when she crosses paths once more with Antonio della Fontana, who owns every corner of the city and abused his position of power at the Baraccano, her tenuous place is lost.

Driven to fight for justice against Fontana as a man whose influence places him above the law, Elena hatches a plan to get retribution for herself, her friend and those still prey to Fontana’s abuses.