Seventeenth-century swordsman Captain Alatriste, continues his adventures at the court of Spain's King Felipe IV in Madrid, where he becomes involved with a beautiful actress, and foils an assassination plot against the monarch.
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.
Ferdinand likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers, but one day he gets stung by a bee and his snorting and stomping convince everyone that he is the fiercest of bulls.
When the tolerant culture of Spain is shattered by the Inquisition, Isabel feels safe because of her Catholic upbringing and father's position as a respected doctor, until he is arrested for the family's secret Jewish heritage.