In the tumultuous 1840s, a Hungarian man of intelligence and talents, Manasseh Adorjan, has just met Princess Cagliari on a train, on her way to Rome to petition the Pope for divorce.

"If the princess has a woman's heart in her bosom," he declares, "she will throw her million away in return for the love of a true man "

Manasseh, a leader among Hungary's Unitarians, sees no obstacle in their religious differences. He little anticipates, however, how a violent storm of politics and passions will threaten to engulf their lives -- a storm unloosed by the forgeries and schemings of his enemies, not least among them the Prince Cagliari himself.