The year is 854. Rahel, a 17-year-old Jewish girl, is preparing to meet her fiancé for the first time. She cannot know that even as she stands observing herself in the mirror, an enemy of her father is making his way to her house. In mere minutes, she will have to flee, leaving behind her fiancé, her home, her possessions, and her identity. Set in the Golden Age of Islam, Rahels journey takes her into the lives of wealthy merchants, Islamic theologians, Christian monks, illicit lovers, and shrewd innkeepers. But when she finds herself drawn, against all convention, to a traveler from the Far West, Rahel must confront the difference between what she once was and who she has become.