1866. The streets of Madrid run with blood—an uprising against the reign of Isabel II has been brutally crushed. Chaos reigns in the city. Protecting each other, the dancer Leonor and the student Mauro kill the soldier who attacks them. Fearing execution, they decide to flee Spain. Leonor marries a Cuban plantation owner she barely knows and leaves with him for Havana, losing contact with Mauro. But the island that seemed like paradise turns out to be a real hell on earth. Here, slavery still thrives, and in unimaginable proportions horrific atrocities take place—cruel mockery and torture, rapes, murders. On one of her husband’s plantations, Leonor recognizes Mauro among the enslaved—he, too, has made it to Cuba, but was deceived and deprived of his freedom. The lovers begin planning an escape from this hell, but find themselves drawn into the maelstrom of a deadly conspiracy…