Modern Venice never stopped being an aristocratic merchant republic. Its councils still meet beneath Tintoretto, its ships still fly Saint Mark's lion, and its Doge is still elected for life by forty-one patricians. After a state aircraft goes down in the Adriatic with almost every man of the ruling Contarini dynasty aboard, the rival houses deadlock for twelve days and finally elect the survivor nobody can object to: Alessandro Contarini, 23. Take the oath they have rewritten for you, wear the corno over a mourning suit, and govern through councils that fear personal rule, while a charter city overseas closes its gates and the markets open in Asia.