11th century

When Samuel's father, the grand vizier, hears Hamza call Samuel names and tells his son to make sure Hamza never speaks an unkind word to him again, Samuel knows he must obey but has a hard time finding the right means to do so. Includes information about Jewish poet Samuel Ha-Nagid and the legend which inspired the story.

In eleventh-century northern England, Frytha, a young Saxon girl left orphaned and homeless by a Norman raid, finds refuge in the Lake District stonghold of Jarl Buthar, a Norse leader determined to resist the invading Normans at all cost.

Miriam, the second daughter of Talmud commentator Salomon ben Isaac in eleventh-century France, comes to depend heavily on her faith when she decides to become a midwife and mohel, and falls in love with a learned and handsome young scholar with a devastating secret.

In 1097 Troyes, France, fourteen-year-old Elvina reaches out to a shunned family of German Jews, eventually drawing her grandfather, Bible and Talmud scholar Solomon ben Isaac, into helping her new friend's cousin Ephraim, whose memories of the Crusaders' cruelty have driven him mad.

Elvina, the unusual granddaughter of renowned Jewish rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, who prefers studying and writing to activities considered respectable for girls, takes a great risk by helping a young boy who has run away from a group of Christian Crusaders in eleventh century Troyes, France.

Elvina, the unusual granddaughter of renowned Jewish rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, who prefers studying and writing to activities considered respectable for girls, takes a great risk by helping a young boy who has run away from a group of Christian Crusaders in eleventh century Troyes, France.