The Duchess of Malfi is recently widowed and her greedy brothers are determined she will not marry again, so they employ Daniel De Bosola, a murderer in their pay to spy on her. He fails and most of the cast pay for the brothers' plotting. One of the great revenge tragedies based on a true story, though John Webster, the playwright, probably didn't know this. Who would believe so much mayhem could happen, five hundred years before the Godfather?