What starts as a tale of survival becomes something far more complex. After Gonzalo Palencia and Leonor's conversion and promotion into nobility, their daughter Mariana is married to Luis del Toro, a Catholic merchant whose family's financial troubles will be saved by the Mariana's dowry. To maintain their status, the families are drawn into a dangerous web of document forgery and criminal alliances. But who are they really protecting: their child, or the secret network of converted Jewish families building hidden escape routes across Europe? The novel explores how their moral compromises ripple through generations, as their expertise in forgery and deception becomes both a burden and a gift to their descendants.

By the story's third generation, Juan del Toro has transformed his parents' desperate skills into colonial power, establishing himself in the silver-rich mountains of Nueva Granada (modern-day Colombia). Rather than simply hiding, he builds bridges between Spanish nobility, converted Jewish families, and indigenous tribes. Through his marriage to Catalina Zapata, who understands both Spanish and indigenous systems, they create something entirely new: a power structure that uses colonial documentation to protect ancient rights and hidden traditions.

The saga reaches its most complex phase with Juan and Catalina's son Crist