Isabel Perez is a sixteen-year-old who dreams of writing poetry, love, and being with the young nobleman Diego Altamirano; but in Trujillo, Spain in 1481 such a love is forbidden by the boy's family because Isabel's families are conversos, new Christians, but in the privacy of their home they still practice Judaism--a secret that could destroy them all when the Inquisition reaches Trujillo and they are forced to flee to the uncertain safety of Portugal, and beyond.