At midnight, the dogs, cats, & rats rule Venice. The Ponte di Ghetto Nuovo, the bridge that leads to the ghetto, trembles under the weight of sacks of rotting vegetables, rancid fat, & vermin. Seeping refuse on the streets renders the pavement slick & the walking treacherous. It was on such a night that the men came for Hannah. Hannah Levi is famed throughout Venice for her skills as a midwife but, as a Jew, the law forbids her from attending a Christian woman. However, when the Conte appears at her door in the dead of night, Hannah`s compassion is sorely tested. & with the handsome reward he is offering, she could ransom back her husb&, currently imprisoned on the island of Malta. But if she fails in her endeavours to save mother & child, will she be able to save herself, let alone her husband?