The year is 1668. There is joy in Vienna at the wedding of Mendele Strasbourg, the son of Rav Shloime Strasbourg, the rabbi of Pulichev. But calamity looms on the horizon. The Queen of Spain has sent an urgent demand to the Emperor and Empress that they expel all the Jews from Vienna. A secret envoy would have to be sent to the foreign royal courts, and Elisha Ringel is persuaded to accept the mission. His perilous journey takes him to Berlin, Hamburg and Venice as he frantically tries to escape the ambushes of his bloodthirsty pursuers.  The fate of the Jews of Vienna hangs in the balance.