In the mid-16th century, Maria`s brother Nico is kidnapped and taken away on a Moslem slave ship, leaving her, a precocious child interested in books, to grow up resenting the culture of Christianity that pervades the island of Malta, particularly after she is raped by her tutor, Father Salvago--and then blamed for it by her family. Meanwhile, Nico narrowly escapes the disasters that could have befallen him, ending as a corsair commander. These and other events lead up to the bloody Battle of Malta, fought between the Ottoman forces and the Christian crusaders in 1565.