The year is 1491, and sixteen-year-old Isabella Obrigon is kidnapped from her privileged life. When told she isn't of Spanish noble blood, but rather the child of a Jewish woman who died in childbirth, Isabella becomes personally embroiled in the terror of the Inquisition. She finds herself imprisoned in the famed fortress of Alhambra, where an encounter with mysterious Miguel Costa impels her to accept having been adopted and to vow to find her birth parents. Extraordinary lives parallel and intertwine in this tale: the Spanish monarchs fight to unify Spain as a Catholic nation; explorer Christopher Columbus-who has secrets of his own-waits impatiently for the war to be won. His dreams of exploration and fabulous wealth hinge upon receiving a summons from Queen Isabella. As soon as the war is over, the queen must fulfill her vow to the grand inquisitor to rid Spain of all heretics. She decrees the Jews' exile. With the war's end, Columbus can now sail under a Spanish flag to chart a passage west to the Indies. Isabella Obrigon must decide whether to follow her heart and join her endangered brethren seeking exile, or stay and live a lie.