The Black Tulip

The lynching of Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis in 1672, the equivalent of the Dutch Prime Minister, opens The Black Tulip. Cornelius van Baerle, a horticulturist, enters a competition to cultivate a black tulip but is unexpectedly put in prison; the remaining 18 months of the story take place during this time. There he meets Rosa, the daughter of the prison guard.