The year is 1592. Rav Shloime Strasbourg, the rabbi of Pulichev, is taking his son Mendel for his bar-mitzvah to the Maharal of Prague. While traveling through a snowy forest, they find a wounded cavalry captain half-frozen to death. The dramatic rescue sets into motion a chain of events that leads to vengeance, arson, betrayal, abduction and heartbreak. The book reaches its breathtaking climax when Mendel, who has succeeded his father as rabbi of Pulichev, is thrust into a debate with a bishop in a highly-publicized spectacle. The prospects of success seem bleak. But a combination of many threads from the painful past results in a stunning turnaround.