Augustin is sent to Mexico City to study for the Jesuit priesthood.In a time when the Inquisition has reached New Spain, Augustin"s loyalties are torn between his adopted religion and that of his people. But he has an even more agonizing secret: he falls in love with Antonia Salvatierra, the daughter of an influential family. The two decide to escape the horrors so they can be married and their child can be born in peace. But the repression of the pueblo people has inspired an unshakable belief that their religion and the spirits of their ancestors, the k"atsinas, alone can deliver them from a life worse than death.