One morning in 1484, a pirate ship attacks the village of Llafranc. Ramón Serra dies defending his family, but he can't save his wife and daughter from being kidnapped. As he lies dying he asks his twelve-year-old son to 'promise me you'll be free.' After losing his family, Joan travels to Barcelona with his little brother. There he works as an apprentice in the bookshop belonging to the Corró family, who he ends up loving as if they were his new parents. These are tumultuous times and the bookseller is burned along with his wife in the bonfire of the Inquisition for upholding that reading is freedom. This new loss reaffirms Joan's three most ardent desires: to rescue his family, win back his married sweetheart in Italy, and become a bookseller; but, accused of killing a man, he is condemned to row in the galleys on board the ship of the terrible Admiral Bernat de Vilamarí.