An earthquake in Peru tears up the white streets of Arequipa. As the dust settles, a young girl arrives at the devastated convent of Santa Catalina. At the same moment, oceans away in Venice, an infant tears his way out of his mother s womb. The great Palazzo Espagnol, built on Peruvian silver and New World drugs, has an heir by the name of Minguillo Fasan. Twelve years later, Venice is in Napoleon s sights and Minguillo is listening to the birth-cries of his new sister, Marcella, a delicate, soft-skinned threat to his inheritance. Meanwhile, at Santa Catalina, the scarred young girl has become Sor Loreta, whose craving for sainthood is taking a decidedly sinister turn. Aided by a loyal servant, an irascible portrait-painter, a young doctor obsessed with skin, a warhorse of a Scottish merchant, and a cigar-smoking pornographer nun, Marcella pits her fierce heart against Minguillo s pitiless machinations. Her journey takes her from Napoleon s shamed Venice to the last picaresque days of colonial Peru where the fanatical Sor Loreta has plans of her own for the young girl from Venice.