A Byzantine princess is snatched and entrusted to a fierce Ottoman warrior to deliver to the sultan as part of a surrender package of the city, until an unexpected overturn of the political chessboard changes all their fates.

There are, it seems, people even in this country, even in this century, who honestly, unironically believe that there is an intelligent, self-conscious force above and beyond humanity and that this force — generally thought of as male, and generally called God — has a will that it exercises over us and everything in the universe. (2000.09.01)