Early Seventeenth-Century Rome
For as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one thing: to be allowed behind the counter of her mother's apothecary in Campo Marzio, Rome. When she turns sixteen, she's finally allowed into the inner sanctum: the workroom where her mother, Giulia Tofana, and two assistants craft renowned remedies for their customers. But for every sweet-smelling flower extract in the workroom, there's another potion requiring darker ingredients. And then there's Aqua Tofana, the apothecary's remedy of last resort for husbands who are just as deadly as any disease. In all Carmela's years of wishing to follow in her mother's footsteps, she never realized one tiny vial could be the death of them all.