This is a chilling story of friendship, first love and family secrets.

Estrella lives in Spain, next door to her best friend Catalina.

They used to be inseparable, but then Andres, Catalina's cousin and the boy she's planning to marry, starts to gaze at Estrella instead. And Catalina starts to plot...Estrella's family have always done things slightly differently.

Lighting candles on a Friday, for example. But these tiny things that Estrella has done all her life suddenly add up to something huge.

She discovers that she and her family are Marranos - Spanish Jews living double lives as Catholics. And soon the outside world starts to intrude on her life - the world of the Spanish Inquisition, of neighbours accusing each other, of looting and riots.

It is a world where new love burns and where friendship ends in flame and ash.