Florence. A series of vendettas pits two families, two factions, against each other: the Fifanti-Amidei and the Buondelmonte. After a marriage collapses, in which the fiancé Buondelmonte fails to appear at the altar to marry a Fifanti-Amidei woman dressed for a wedding on the Ponte Vecchio, the traitor is murdered while some time later on his way to marry another. The conflict then escalates into a struggle between the Empire and the Papacy, between Guelphs and Ghibellines.
