Umnaya, reshitel'naya zhenschina, s tochenymi chertami lica i sil'nym harakterom - grecheskaya princessa Sof'ya Paleolog, buduchi vtoroy zhenoy velikogo moskovskogo knyazya Ivana III, vela ne tol'ko aktivnuyu politicheskuyu zhizn', no i zakulisnuyu igru, ustraivaya pridvornye intrigi radi vosshestviya ee syna na carskiy prestol... Kazalos' by, iskrennim chelovecheskim chuvstvam: lyubvi, druzhbe - net mesta na e'toy yarmarke tscheslaviya. No molodoy florentinec Paolo, lichnyy tolmach d'yaka Fedora Kuricyna, bez uma vlyubilsya... Da ne v prostuyu devushku, a v dochku d'yaka, priblizhennogo k knyagine Sof'e. Dumal li yunosha, chto strast' k miloy Ksenii okazhetsya tragicheskoy - on budet vtyanut v zagovor protiv Ivana III i dolzhen spasti svoego uchitelya, obvinennogo v eresi, ot neminuemoy kazni? No e'to potom, a seychas on igraet na fleyte i mechtaet o tom, kak ukrast' svoyu vozlyublennuyu...