We meet a young boy who is secretly a girl in disguise. She is Jewish, and she has been granted passage to French Canada, New France. She goes by Jacque, but her name is Esther. She is caught (girls were not allowed), but they are unable to return her because the boat is decommissioned. She loves her Jewish faith, but her community is Catholic, so she continues hiding parts of herself.
Her family is from the Anusim, which were Jews deprived of their rituals during the Spanish Inquisition. As the victim of religious oppression, Esther knows how important it is not to be on the wrong side of the Christians. She knows that those in town are being taxed by France, and the town is oppressed by those tax burdens. She is well-educated and her point of view is academic and forthright.
She tells stories to townspeople sometimes, often including hints about her Judaism, and she gains a reputation for her use of language. She drinks hot chocolate and closes her eyes and starts telling stories, and people love her for it. Then one day, she is discovered for her Jewish faith, and she is brought before a committee in town and made to defend herself. She explains the real truth about her passage to the New World; she was sent to marry a random guy in Amsterdam, but she escaped to Canada instead.
