A fascinating story that recounts the passionate struggle for freedom of two black women in different eras: colonial enslaved Cuba and 21st-century Spain.

Cuba, mid-19th century. A ship carrying a sinister cargo arrives on the Caribbean island. Over seven hundred women and girls, kidnapped from their native Africa, come to work—exhaustingly—in the sugarcane fields and give birth to children who will also be slaves. Kaweka is one of them, a young woman who experiences firsthand the horrors of slavery on the estate of the cruel Marquis of Santadoma, but who soon proves to those around her that she possesses the ability to commune with Yemayá, a capricious goddess who sometimes grants her the gift of healing and gives her the strength to lead her fellow people in the fight for freedom against oppressors who have enslaved their bodies but not their souls.

Madrid, present day. Lita, a young mulatto woman, is the daughter of Concepción, who has spent her life serving in the home of the Marquis of Santadoma in the upscale Salamanca district, just as her ancestors did in colonial Cuba. Despite her education and professional ambition, precarious employment forces Lita to turn to the all-powerful Santadoma family for an opportunity in the marquis’s banking business. As she delves into the company’s finances and the family’s past, she uncovers the origins of their fortune and decides to wage a legal battle for the dignity and justice owed to her mother and to all the women who dedicated their lives to serving whites who never treated them as equals.

A dazzling novel about two courageous women who fight, each with her own weapons, against racism and injustice, written by Spain’s most important contemporary historical fiction author. A heartfelt tribute to the role of women in their struggle for justice and freedom.