Venice, 1202. Tens of thousands of crusaders set sail for Jerusalem to liberate the great city from Muslim rule. Among them is a British vagabond grudgingly taken under the wing of a pious knight who believes that the mission is truly blessed by God. Before leaving, the vagabond rescues a woman pretending to be an Arab princess, hoping that under the protection of his benefactor knight, he can smuggle the young woman back to the Holy Land. However, this "holy" campaign sinks into tragic moral turpitude --- first in an attack on the Adriatic port city of Zara, and ultimately in the dramatic, disastrous sack of the seat of the Byzantine empire, Constantinople.

Galland, a Harvard graduate with a degree in Comparative Religion, personally retraced the entirety of the Fourth Crusade's infamous path while researching the book. The result is a rich and riveting tale replete with exotic settings, full-blooded and complex characters, and sparkling wit.