In his single-minded drive to succeed, businessman Michael Patriate allowed Sheila, the woman he loved, to slip away. And when his picture on the cover of High Finance Magazine validates the years of sacrifice, a midnight attack on a Manhattan street interrupts his celebration. Dumped alone into a backward country that is—impossibly—Renaissance Italy, he starts over in provincial Caorle with ambition and business experience his only resources.

Michael fights his way back to the top and takes on the ruthless merchants in neighboring Venice, while he falls in love with Cecile, a young widow. But he catches the attention of a rich merchant and the Doge of Venice, who each want his business savvy and knowledge of advanced technology. Will he act to make himself rich at the cost of disrupting society? Can he change history? Will he turn his back on friends and on Cecile?

How would you make your way if thrust into an impossible situation where all you possess, down to the culture and technology that define your world, is stripped away? What choices would you make? How far would you go? In this historical novel with a time-travel twist, The King of Silk tells the story of one man's journey.