In a shabby house on a shabby street in Madrid, Lucia Cotado quietly uses magic to ease her days as a dishwasher\'s endless duties. But when she discovers that the clumsy maid actually hides a flair for small miracles, the scheming landlady demands that Lucia use her gifts to secure a better social status for her family. What begins as a simple game for the gentry takes a dangerous turn when the girl catches the eye of Antonio Perez, the disgraced royal secretary. The king is still reeling from his defeat and is ready to use any advantage he can to wage war against the heretic queen of England; and Perez will stop at nothing to regain the royal favour. Determined to improve her own fortunes, Lucia plunges into a world of prophets and alchemists, hypocrites and speculators, where the line between magic, science and fraud is never clear. However, along with fame comes the danger that her Jewish blood will condemn her to the persecution of the Inquisition. She will have to use her wits and will to live to the fullest, even if it means enlisting the help of Guillen Santangel, a vicious immortal family man whose secrets could prove fatal to them both