a lovesick boy from a noble house in italy

In this romance, a middle-aged playboy finds himself running his father's fur business after his father's death. He continues to allow his papa's mistress to run the business. The playboy's fiancee gets pregnant and he refuses to marry her. She dumps him in favor of his best friend. Soon the selfish man finds himself deserted by all his friends. He winds up involved with his father's patiently waiting lover.

He is a brave and gallant young lieutenant of the Italian army at a time when his country is on the eve of war with Turkey. He becomes infatuated with a country girl of intense love nature and splendid womanhood, one lacking knowledge of the world and experience in life. When her feeble insight into character and motive is pitted against his superior intelligence and that long practice in the craft of heartbreaking that enables a handsome gentleman in uniform to practice a form of enchantment with such women, the result is easily foreseen.

A feud existed between two Italian houses and it meant disaster to any one of the belligerents to intrude into the opposing house. The Lord of the house gives a feast in honor of the arrival of a wealthy foreign noble, whom he expects to make his son-in-law. The daughter, however, has given her heart to the son of her father's enemy. That he may be present at the festival, she surreptitiously takes her father's signet ring, throwing it to him from the window, which, of course, admits him. The father, anticipating the intrusion of his enemies, orders death to any member who enters the hall. After the festivities the unwelcome betrothal takes place and the forbidden lover braves death to see his loved one. While they are in clandestine meeting a guard is seen to enter the corridor so the girl hides her sweetheart in a secret closet, turning the key and taking it with her. Not finding the intruder, the guard imagines he was mistaken.

The setting is Firenze (Florence), Italy, in the 1850s, where the Unification of Italy was beginning. Antonio is a sharp and virtuous young noble who is the oldest son of a marquis family. He meets Pamela, who used to be a singer at a bar but has now become the widow of a noble. He is charmed by her eyes that are deep with emotion and falls in love with her. On the other hand, the second son of the marquis family, Leonardo, is more free-spirited than Antonio. He believes that Pamela is a wicked woman who will lead his older brother to ruin. He therefore sets up a false romance to separate them, however...

In a southern villa after the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies live Donna Clotilde and Donna Gesualda. The first is a Bourbon baroness who rejects the new world and the Italian language. The other is the poor relative with duties as a maid. Apart from the village priest, they see no one. Then her nephew Ferdinando arrives at the villa, young, handsome, and squirming.

In 1500, Duke Cesare Borgia hopes to marry his sister to the heir apparent of Ferrara, which impedes his conquest of central Italy. On this delicate mission he sends Andrea Orsini, his sister's lover and nearly as unscrupulous as himself. En route, Orsini meets Camilla Verano, wife of the count of Citta' del Monte, and sentiment threatens to turn him against his deadly master, whom no one betrays twice...