In 1302, Dante Alighieri was condemned to death by the city he had served. Refusing to confess to crimes he did not commit, he chose exile over dishonor and left Florence with nothing but his name and a bundle of pages.

What followed was one of the greatest acts of creation in human history. Moving from court to court, carrying only his vow to the woman he had loved and lost, Dante began to shape a vision of the afterlife that would judge popes and princes, enemies and friends, and ultimately himself.

As he wandered through Italy, writing the poem that would become the Divine Comedy, Dante transformed personal loss into something universal. The work that began in grief and exile would outlast the sentence against him, the city that cast him out, and the centuries that followed.

This is the story of a man who made Hell visible - and in doing so, found a way to carry what could not be taken from him.