Drink from the Cup of the Borgias... if you dare. Renaissance Italy is rushing headlong toward war, but Cardinal Cesare Borgia has other things on his mind. Burdened with the tempestuous affections of his younger sister Lucrezia and the ever-increasing tension between himself and his reluctant right-hand assassin Chiaro, he's caught by surprise in the clutches of a woman whose desire for him is surpassed only by her fear of what he will do to her if she doesn't see to his immediate and painful death...