In modern day Mexico City, a young graduate student of anthropology, Stefan Marquez Calle, hears a surprising confession from his dying aunt. Her revelation sends him on a journey of discovery that flings him backwards in time to fifteenth century Spain. He finds his own life entangled with that of Alfonso Calle, an ancestor immersed in a quest for religious survival within the intrigue of an underground world. Stefan is drawn into the terrifying realm of the Spanish Inquisition, of brutal torture and burning at the stake of living human beings. In ancient palaces, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella rule, black hooded Dominican monks plot murderous schemes in an effort to destroy all vestiges of beleaguered Judaism. Within the same corridors of power, Christopher Columbus, an ambitious explorer, makes harried appeals to the monarchs for help to launch his voyage. How the lives of Stefan and Alfonso, the two central protagonists, are intertwined and the outcome that even today affects many thousands of people, is the essence of this gripping story.