A compelling debut about the early life of Theodora, who rose from obscurity to become Empress of Constantinople. In sixth-century Constantinople, one woman defied every convention and rose from a common theater tart to become empress of a great kingdom, the most powerful woman the Roman Empire would ever know. As she gained a back-door entry into the halls of power, surviving starvation, heartbreak, and betrayal along the way, she could never have predicted that one day she would find a great man to love and be handed a crown... or that she would be shrewd, bold, and strong enough to keep it. Theodora, the woman whose image was later immortalized in glittering mosaic, was a defiant, clever, conniving, flesh-and-blood woman full of sensuality and spirit whose story is as surprising as any ever told...