Early spring 1635, Ludovico da Portovenere, Italian merchant and charismatic rogue, is on a familiar voyage from Constantinople to Amsterdam when his journey is interrupted. Waylaid first by a storm and then by a pirate raid, Ludo's life is cast into upheaval and international espionage. The storm forces Ludo to make an unscheduled landing in Spain, where he is invited to undertake a secret commission to Holland. The Thirty Years War drags on with no end in sight and the Spanish monarch is anxious to disrupt the Dutch rebels' finances. The mission intrigues Ludo so he accepts. The storm also brings him a quick-witted young admirer, someone he thinks he can use as a spy, but this boy has plans of his own. The pirate raid brings Ludo a captive. A feisty young woman named Alina. Finding her an encumbrance he sells her to a minor English nobleman in Plymouth and sails on, never expecting to see her again. There's a wealthy widow waiting for him in Amsterdam, someone with money and the right contacts for his secret task. A tale of power and intrigue, The Chosen Man is a fictional account of the events that triggered the Dutch scandal known as 'tulip mania'.