Thirty years before the Spanish Inquisition, the seeds of hatred have sprouted in Castile. Suspicions fester. Rage churns beneath the surface. Vicente Perez-a man who wields enviable power but harbors a shameful past-is the only one who can keep the tension from exploding out of control. As the Christian son of secret Jews, Vicente is in a hopeless position-charged with keeping the peace, but always suspected by the city's Old Christians, unwilling but duty-bound to help the increasingly persecuted Jews, and to aid his king whose rule is threatened. When Vicente crosses the ruthless, power-hungry lawyer Marcos Garcia de Mora, he makes a formidable enemy. Garcia's plan: to rally the common men, attack Jews, and purify Toledo by purging suspected heretics-the Christian descendants of Jews, converts like Vicente. As war breaks out between the king and his cousins, and Garcia and his madmen rise to power in Toledo, Vicente falls in love with the mysterious Francesca and finds himself faced with impossible choices: love or duty, respect or intolerance, reverence or disdain for his ancestry. From the courts of kings in Naples and Castile to the chambers of Pope Nicholas and the torture cellars of Toledo, this gripping novel brings to life an era of little-known history in fifteenth-century Spain, a time when a rogue inquisition threatened to destroy the very soul of Toledo."