One morning in July, a girl is dragged away from her homeland, reduced to slavery, and sold by human traffickers. From the wild plateaus of the Caucasus to the Black Sea, from Constantinople to Venice, from Florence to Vinci. When she arrives in Italy, everything has been taken from her – her body, her dreams, her future, her land, and her ancient culture. But in Tuscany, her second life begins. 

Five centuries later, the accomplished Italian Renaissance scholar Carlo Vecce is at the State Archive in Florence. As he reviews yet another document, he comes across the act of liberation of a slave, Caterina, by her mistress, Monna Ginevra, who had rented her out as a wet nurse two years earlier to a Florentine knight. The act is signed by a young notary.