It's 1466, and Caterina Galli is visiting her cousins in Paris. But after an epidemic breaks out in the city, Caterina contracts the plague, and her life is set on an unplanned path where peril lurks around every corner. Thomas has grown tired of the corruption and ever-present shadow that looms over his family-and his father has grown tired of Thomas's constant questioning of authority. In a final effort to quell Thomas's swelling resentment, Priest sends his fifth son halfway across the world to serve as a mercenary to Hernan Cortes. But what Thomas discovers during his time away will...