Shipwrecked on the cost of Aztec Mexico, Geronimo is one of only two men to survive the sinking of their great Spanish galleon. Taken in by the winic Indians, Geronimo learns that if he is to survive, he must abandon his European customs and language and learn to live as the Indians do.

Ten years pass, and one day a man comes with a bag of dazzling jewels and buys Geronimo’s freedom from his winic master. Hernan Cortes calls Geronimo back from the jungle to his new exploration fleet waiting nearby.

Charismatic, plotting and seductive Cortes quickly understands the value of having Geronimo in his inner circle as a translator who can help facilitate his vision of plunder, religious conversion and conquest of these ‘primitive peoples’.

Geronimo understands too late that he now has no choice but to betray the very people who saved his life and taught him about the beauty of living.
What follows is two-stranded tale: at once an action-packed, lush, and lyrical story of political manipulation, destruction, passionate love – and the end of one of the greatest empires on earth.