A financial crisis is wracking Florence. Orlando de Giovanni, the only doctor in the city sympathetic to the Republican cause, must leave the city because of debts to the De Medici bank. Francesca can't afford to buy new dresses because De Medici's tax revenues have been severely curtailed. Machiavelli recommends holding a lottery to raise funds for the ruling family, but De Medici takes his plan a step further by rigging the contest.
—David Bassler