Publisher's Synopsis
The novel begins the day before Don Abbondio, a parish priest, has scheduled to perform marriage rites for two of his parishioners, Lorenzo and Lucia. Two agents of a local nobleman visit the priest and threaten him with death if he meets his obligations, successfully scaring him into obedience. The young man and woman try and trick the priest into being present while they covertly exchange vows, but he works out what is going on and runs away. The local nobleman's motives in preventing the marriage of Lorenzo and Lucia are material, not romantic, in that he has wagered with his cousin that he will be able to seduce Lucia while she is still a virgin. To this end, he sends his henchmen to kidnap her, but they, too, run away when Don Abbondio discovers them and rings the church bells as an alarm. Lucia, Lorenzo, and Lucia's mother take shelter with another clergyman, Fra Cristoforo, who arranges for Lucia to be sent to a convent in Monza to be looked after until the danger passes. Don Rodrigo, the nobleman who tried to kidnap Lucia, enlists the help of a more powerful nobleman called "The Unnamed" so as to steal Lucia from the convent. The Unnamed discovers that the woman in whose care Lucia currently resides has had an argument with one of the other nuns and has engaged one of his men to murder her. With this information as leverage, he convinces her to send Lucia out of the convent and straight into his hands.
